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D43:  Global Infectious Disease Research Training Program, entitled, "Translational Research in Malaria Transmission and Immunity in Kenya."

Cerebral Malaria in Children Is Associated With Long-Term Cognitive Impairment.  Pediatrics. Published online June 9, 2008; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2007-3709.

"University of Minnesota researcher finds that one-quarter of children with cerebral malaria have long-term cognitive impairment" In an early release publication in Pediatrics, University of Minnesota pediatric researcher Dr. Chandy John presented findings that one quarter of children with cerebral malaria have persistent cognitive impairment two years after the episode of cerebral malaria. Malaria kills more children under 5 years of age than any other infectious organism, approximately 1 million children per year. Most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that more than 750,000 children every year develop cerebral malaria, a particularly severe form of malaria that affects the brain, causing the child to become comatose. Up to 20% of children with cerebral malaria die from the disease. Prior to the present study, no study had followed children with cerebral malaria who survived, to see if their thinking was affected long-term by the acute disease. Dr. John's team in Uganda documented for the first time that more than one in four children with cerebral malaria will have problems with thinking processes 2 years after the episode of cerebral malaria. Children with cerebral malaria seem to have particularly noticeable difficulties in the area of attention. Overall, the study findings suggest that up to 200,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa may have long-term cognitive impairment due to cerebral malaria, making it a major cause of brain injury in developing countries. Dr. John's research collaborators on this study include Dr. Michael Boivin, a neuropsychologist from Michigan State University who specializes in assessing brain function and thinking processes in children in different cultures, and Dr. Robert Opoka, a pediatrician from Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, where the study was conducted. The study findings were presented earlier this year at the American Academy of Neurology's national meeting, where the presentation was chosen as in the top 5% of all research presented at the meeting. Dr. John recently received a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to follow up on this study and define the factors that cause cognitive damage in children with cerebral malaria, so that efforts can be made to prevent this damage.