What If Fighting Malaria Abroad Protected Us at Home?

Refining a lifesaving drug could be the key to helping more children survive severe malaria.

That pursuit is at the heart of the research of Matthew Laurens, MD, MPH. Laurens, professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is studying how children’s bodies process IV artesunate — the front-line treatment for severe malaria — with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

His commitment to global health began as a newly minted college graduate, when he witnessed the impact of infectious diseases firsthand. “I joined the U.S. Peace Corps before medical school, and it was during the U.S. Peace Corps service that I really became passionate about pursuing medicine as a career,” Laurens explained. “There I learned about diseases that affect marginalized populations and people living in areas with limited resources.”

Partnering with researchers in Uganda, Laurens’ team is examining how dosing might be optimized to save more lives, especially in cases of cerebral malaria, where the disease reaches the brain and becomes far harder to treat.

While malaria is rare in the United States, Laurens noted that locally acquired cases have recently been reported in states like Maryland. He said that if advances are made abroad, “then we can reduce the risk — not only to communities where malaria still exists, but we can also reduce the risk to U.S. citizens who live at home and who might be at risk if malaria were to be reintroduced.”

In a new video Q&A, Laurens shares why this research is so urgent and how saving children abroad helps protect lives everywhere.

You can read a few of his answers below or watch and listen as he shares more about this lifesaving work.

Questions

Can you tell us about your research into treatment for severe malaria in children?

We’re looking to study the pharmacokinetics of a drug that’s used to treat severe malaria in children called artesanate. It's a lifesaving drug, but we don't know a lot about it in terms of its effects on the body systems in general. So, we know that it clears parasites, that it kills parasites quickly, but the dosing might be able to be refined such that we can get even better outcomes with this drug in treating severe malaria in kids.

What is cerebral malaria, and how could improved treatments help save lives at this critical stage of the disease?

It represents progression of malaria that first starts in the blood and then begins to affect other organ systems in the body, including the brain.

It’s very difficult to successfully treat that after the disease has progressed to a certain level. So, improving therapeutics for children and others with cerebral malaria is important because they are at a very critical stage of life and death.

What are the broader ripple effects of protecting children from diseases like malaria?

Being a pediatrician, I’m obviously very passionate about children and the health of children and ensuring that children have a safe and healthy environment where they can thrive. And I think that is a common goal that all of us have, is to ensure that children — not only in our communities, but also in other communities — benefit from that very safe environment that we provide for them. By reducing diseases and other threats that could kill them, we are ensuring that they not only have a safe environment, but they can also thrive academically. They can attend school without being sick. They can go on to pursue careers and education that allows them to advance and live healthy and long lives.