Professor Jim Kazura and Burnet Director and CEO Professor Brendan Crabb AC.

Distinguished malaria researcher, Professor Jim Kazura has presented to a packed Burnet Institute audience that more needs to be done to reduce the 10 per cent death rate of severe malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Director of the Center for Global Health and Diseases at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Professor Kazura’s research focuses on advancing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and susceptibility to malaria.

“Although things are better now than they were 25 years ago, we have to be more sophisticated than we were in the 1955 to 1971 era. At that time, we also thought that we could eliminate malaria but things fell apart,” he explained.

“Despite the fact that we now have artemisinin-based drugs for malaria, the death rate, in Africa remains at about eight to10%, so we need adjunct strategies to bring that under better control.”

Burnet Institute Director and CEO, Professor Brendan Crabb said it was a pleasure to have Professor Kazura back at Burnet presenting today’s Director’s Seminar.

“We are in a new world in terms of malaria elimination/eradication than we were in 10 years ago, Jim offers a really important perspective in this area,” Professor Crabb said.