The UK’s University of Liverpool has tied up with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to identify areas in India that are at higher risk of malaria outbreaks, following changes in monsoon rainfall patterns. The UK-based university’s School of Environmental Sciences started working on the project in January with the CSIR's Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS) in Bangalore. They are scheduled to come up with a map of malaria-prone areas by the end of this year. The project is expected to cost Rs 73 lakh and is funded by the UK-India Education Research Initiative. Scientists and experts from the two organisations are using the latest published reports in India on higher-rainfall areas, as well as computer simulations, to prepare the map. They plan to share it with health authorities and activists working to contain malaria. “We already know that an anomalous season of heavy rainfall allows insects such as mosquitoes to thrive and spread infection to humans.,” the University of Liverpool’s Mr Andy Morse explained. “In order to prevent epidemics, we must have a way of predicting when these events are likely to occur in areas that are not accustomed to annual outbreaks of malaria,” he said. “Liverpool has developed human and animal disease models that can be integrated into seasonal forecasting systems to give a picture of what the climate impacts on disease risk will be like in four to six months’ time.” C-CMMACS, which has experience in preparing global climate models is augmenting its computer modelling capabilities to address the impacts of climate variability on agriculture and water systems. “This knowledge, together with the Liverpool models of vector-borne diseases, will help us develop systems to predict when changes in the monsoon rains may occur and which areas are most likely to see a rise in cases of malaria… (which) should support decision makers in keeping ahead of the more serious occurrences of the disease,” said Mr Prashant Goswami from C-MMACS. sns Anti-malarial drug launched KOLKATA, 25 APRIL: Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) today launched, what it termed as India’s first new drug ~ Synriam ~ for the treatment of uncomplicated plasmodium falciparum malaria in adults. The new drug has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for marketing in the country and conforms to the recommendations of the WHO for combination therapy in malaria. Phase III clinical trials for the drug ~ conducted in India, Bangladesh and Thailand ~ successfully demonstrated the efficacy and durability as comparable to the combination of artemether and lumefantrine, according to the company. sns