Search results
Showing results for
We are pleased to announce that Prof Joel Tarning has been awarded the biennial Grahame-Smith Prize by the British Pharmacological Society for outstanding contributions to clinical pharmacology. Joel has headed MORU's Clinical Pharmacology Department since 2012. Since then, the Department has grown into large, productive group that conducts laboratory- and computer-based pharmacology research.
©
2020 MORU. Photographer: Gerhard Jørén
A repetitive nucleotide insertion in the rplV gene is associated with in vitro resistance to azithromycin in Rickettsia typhi
Posted 07/05/2026. Weerawat Phuklia and colleagues showed that reduced susceptibility to azithromycin in Rickettsia typhi can be induced under laboratory drug pressure. A small genetic change in a ribosomal protein likely affects how the drug binds. The change was reversible without antibiotic pressure, helping improve laboratory methods for studying antibiotic susceptibility in this bacterium.
Effect of external cephalic version in a resource-limited setting on the Thailand-Myanmar border: a retrospective cohort with propensity score analysis
Posted 06/05/2026. Pregnant women with breech presentation are offered external cephalic version (ECV) to avoid breech birth. Nay Win Tun, Sue Lee and colleagues found no difference in presentation at birth between women who were offered ECV or not. However, successful ECV was associated with significantly better outcomes, highlighting the importance of improving practitioner skill and ECV success rates to maximise clinical benefit.
Plasmodium vivax malaria relapse risk depends on transmission intensity: evidence from a longitudinal study in Northwest Thailand
Posted 05/05/2026. A prospective longitudinal cohort study in Thailand (2010-2014) showed declining incidence (0.19 to 0.09 per person-year) of Plasmodium vivax infections after primaquine radical cure. Primaquine efficacy at 4 months was 75% less than predicted in a previously published taylor-made probability model. This suggests higher doses of 8-aminoquinolines may not be needed in pre-elimination settings. By Cindy Chu
A sustainable house design to improve child health in rural Africa: a cluster-randomized controlled trial
Posted 28/04/2028. Children in Tanzania that lived in novel design houses were less likely to get malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections than were those living in conventional homes during a 3-year trial. The two-storey ‘Star Home’ puts bedrooms on the upper floor, where mosquitoes abundance is lower, and the latrine outside to help reduce the spread of diarrhoeal diseases. The design is a proof of concept to demonstrate that research can inform architecture that improves health outcomes. By Lorenz Von Seidlein
Sustaining community-based malaria services through stakeholder engagement: lessons from co-creation in northeastern Thailand
Posted 22/04/2026. This public engagement project explored how active participation by malaria post workers and community members can maintain malaria awareness and elimination advocacy in low-transmission settings. Through iterative stakeholder engagement in northeastern Thailand bordering Laos and Cambodia, Monnaphat Jongdeepaisal and colleagues co-created locally owned health education tools integrating malaria with local health priorities to support a stronger and sustainable community-based health care in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Mapping the global prevalence and socioecological drivers of child sexual abuse: a systematic review and synthesis
Posted 14/04/2026. Child sexual abuse affects millions of children worldwide yet remains largely underreported. Salum Mshamu and colleagues highlight its global prevalence and key risk factors across individual, family and societal levels. Prompted by field experiences, they explore how child sexual abuse may surface in global health research, helping researchers better recognize and respond during fieldwork.
A mixed-methods evaluation of outreach service provision by the “Strengthening Migrant Access to Reproductive Health in Thailand” Initiative, 2020–2024
Posted 13/04/2026. Beginning in 2020, SMRU set out on something bold. It completely restructured maternal health services to incorporate outreach delivery—meeting migrant women where they are. Through COVID and a coup in Myanmar, this program delivered and offset the structural barriers migrant women face in accessing care. By Rose McGready
Impact of switching from manual to automated aerobic blood culture on bacteremia diagnosis in Lao PDR
Posted 25/03/2026. At a Lao primary-to-tertiary hospital, automated blood culture processing did not increase growth yield but shortened time to pathogen detection versus manual methods. However, adopting a single bottle reduced blood volume submitted across ages. Monitoring and clinician feedback on volumes may improve practice, though adding extra bottles would double costs. By Risara Jaksuwan
Antimicrobial resistance in bacterial meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, or Haemophilus influenzae (2010–24): a systematic review and meta-analysis
Posted 10/02/2026. Gilbert Lazarus and Raph Hamers analysed antimicrobial resistance in bacterial meningitis, synthesising global data on Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae from 88 studies across 37 countries. Resistance to first-line antibiotics is common and rising in LMICs, threatening effective treatment and progress toward defeating meningitis by 2030. Strengthening syndrome-specific surveillance is critical to keeping treatment guidelines effective.
Cohort Profile: the SMRU Refugee and Migrant Pregnancy Study in Western Thailand and Eastern Myanmar
Posted 17/03/2026. The “Shoklo Malaria Research Unit Refugee and Migrant Pregnancy Cohort” established 40 years ago describes outcomes of refugee and migrant pregnancies at the Thailand-Myanmar border. With 94,645 registrations, the evidence has had local and international impact, improving maternal-newborn health practices, and changing the WHO guidelines on malaria treatment during pregnancy. By Rose McGready
“The most stress comes from witnessing the abuse of children” — challenges faced by research assistants in community-based research in Mtwara, Tanzania
Posted 12/03/2026. While conducting fieldwork for a housing study in rural Tanzania, research assistants (RAs) identified several cases of child sexual abuse. This qualitative study explores how RAs encounter situations that can trigger moral distress, particularly when witnessing participant suffering, including cases of child sexual abuse. The nature and extent of these challenges, how RAs navigated moral distress, and potential solutions are discussed in this article. By Salum Mshamu, Bipin Adhikari & colleagues.
Aetiology of acute respiratory infection in Vientiane, Lao PDR, from a case–control study
Posted 10/03/2026. A case–control study in Laos investigated causes and risk factors of hospitalised acute respiratory infections in children under five. Respiratory syncytial virus and H. influenzae were major contributors. Exclusive breastfeeding and pneumococcal vaccination reduced risk, while low birth weight and household smoking increased risk, highlighting priorities for targeted prevention strategies. By Audrey Dubot-Pérès
Reimagining primary health care: a historical and contemporary scoping review of community-based primary health care models and innovations
Posted 13/02/2026. Can community-based primary health care survive rapid demographic change, rising chronic diseases, and digital disruption? Drawing on global evidence from 1975–2025, Bipin Adhikari and colleagues show how community health workers transformed access and equity, and why CBPHC must now evolve into an integrated, people-centered, and digitally enabled model to achieve universal health coverage.
Rapid diagnosis of skin and soft tissue melioidosis in children
Posted 11/02/2026. Keang Suy and colleagues evaluate the impact and accuracy of the Active Melioidosis Detect rapid test in children. By focusing on skin and soft tissue cases, this study expands our understanding of paediatric melioidosis, a vulnerable population often overlooked, ensuring they receive the rapid diagnostic attention and tailored clinical care they deserve.
Laboratory diagnosis of melioidosis
Posted 06/02/2026. Vanaporn Wuthiekanun and colleagues outline current best practices and challenges in the laboratory diagnosis of melioidosis, a frequently underdiagnosed yet life-threatening disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei. Drawing on global expertise from endemic and non-endemic regions, the authors highlight the importance of integrating rapid lateral flow assays, PCR, and genomic approaches to improve early detection and global surveillance.
Diaries in global health: a southern perspective
Posted 04/02/2026. Diaries in Global Health: A Southern Perspective traces Bipin Adhikari’s journey from rural Nepal to global health practice, using personal narratives to explore power, inequality, and contemporary global health discourses such as decolonisation. The book calls for epistemic indebtedness and positions Global South scholars as active producers of knowledge in a more humane, pluralistic global health field.
Spatiotemporal trends in P. falciparum malaria and identification of high-risk villages in Eastern Myanmar: an 8-year observational study
Posted 30/01/2026. Using routine weekly surveillance data from malaria posts in Hpapun Township, Myanmar (2014 - 2021), Jade Rae and colleagues developed a geostatistical model to estimate monthly Plasmodium falciparum incidence and identify villages with persistently higher-than-expected incidence, providing a practical approach for targeting resources and supporting malaria elimination.
One health perspective of antibiotic resistance in enterobacterales from Southeast Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Posted 21/01/2026. Antimicrobial resistance in Enterobacterales remains a critical challenge in Southeast Asia. Yewei Xie, Mo Yin and colleagues synthesised regional data, identifying high resistance burdens across sectors while revealing critical gaps in cross-sectoral surveillance. These findings highlight the urgent need for a standardised regional network to strengthen evidence-informed preparedness and response
Housing modifications for heat adaptation
Posted 20/01/2026. Better housing can lead to better health. Retrofitting of existing housing may be the fastest way and needs the least start up capital but the results are often suboptimal compared to a novel house design. Salum Mshamu, Lorenz von Seidlein, and Jakob Knudsen comment on a recent study of house modification in Kenya in nature medicine.
Tafenoquine lactation pharmacokinetics: a pilot study
Posted 09/01/2026. First report: tafenoquine antimalarial concentrations in breast milk have been measured by Mellie Gilder, Eh Heet and colleagues at Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, an important step to vivax elimination. Details of drug concentrations in foremilk vs. hindmilk, and abundant vs. scarce milk volumes shed new light on the dynamics of lactation pharmacokinetics.