One of the world’s most dangerous diseases, malaria infects between 300 million to 650 million people each year. Plasmodium falciparum, the most serious form of the disease, kills more than 1 million people per year worldwide. Illness and death from malaria are largely preventable.

Malaria symptoms often include fever, chills and flu-like illness. Symptoms appear 10-to-15 days after a person is infected. If not treated promptly, malaria can cause severe illness and is often fatal.

Malaria is caused by parasites of the species Plasmodium that are spread from person to person through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The disease may be transmitted to people of all ages. Malaria transmission differs in intensity and regularity depending on local factors such as rainfall patterns, proximity of mosquito-breeding sites and mosquito species. Some regions have a constant number of cases throughout the year, whereas other areas have malaria seasons, which usually coincide with the rainy season.

If detected early and treated properly, malaria may be cured. Since 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that malaria be treated with the potent antimalarial drug artemisinin as part of combination therapy. Coartem is a highly effective artemisinin-based fixed-dose combination that cures up to 95 percent of cases, even in areas of multi-drug resistance. Coartem is the only antimalarial prequalified by WHO, and is the only malaria therapy added to WHO’s Essential Medicines List. Since 2001, Novartis has provided more than 160 million treatments without profit to those most in need. To accelerate access to its state-of-the-art antimalarial treatment, Novartis reduced the average price of Coartem for the public market by 20 percent on World Malaria Day (April 25, 2008).

Forty percent of the world's population — mostly people living in the world's poorest countries—is at risk of contracting malaria. The disease is most prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. As much as 90 percent of malaria-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, home to the most efficient, deadly species of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. Other affected areas include:

• India;
• Southeast Asia;
• Central and northern South America;
• Middle East;
• Areas of Europe.

The people most at risk for developing the severest form of the disease are:

• Young children;
• Women who lose their acquired immunity to malaria during pregnancy;
• People who lack any immunity to the disease, such as refugees and migrant workers moving from areas where there is little malaria.

Malaria is Africa's leading cause of mortality for children under five. An estimated 10 000 pregnant women and 200 000 infants die annually as a result of malaria infection during pregnancy. Neurological damage can result in non-fatal cases.

In the past, malaria has not been a threat to the Western world. However, WHO has warned that global warming is causing the range of malaria-carrying mosquitoes to extend farther north than ever before. WHO also states that without urgent action through changes in human lifestyle, the effects of climate change on the global system could be abrupt or even irreversible, sparing no country.

Heavier rainfalls are one of the most agreed-upon effects of climate change. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the frequency of intense rainfalls has increased notably in the Midwest US, the Northeast and Alaska, and is expected to accelerate. Heavy rainfall is correlated with more than half of the nation's outbreaks of water-borne illness. For example, the 2008 flooding in Texas and the mosquito infestation that followed illustrate the effect of climate change on the increased incidence of water-borne diseases.

The Singapore-based NITD is involved in several public-private partnerships. It brings together a new group of funders to support an international consortium of researchers to develop new drugs for the fight against malaria. Scientists at NITD will investigate the potential for the development of existing compounds that have already shown antimalarial activity. They will explore novel compounds as well. Specifically, research at NITD will focus on the development of a one-dose cure for Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous form of malaria, and a cure for Plasmodium vivax.