Danny Milner, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School
"Pediatric Cerebral Malaria: Mortality and Pathogenesis"
Malaria is responsible for 600,000 deaths annually which largely affects children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. Although there is a steady decline in these areas with falling incidence, the mortality of cerebral malaria in adults in low endemicity settings is significantly higher. As efforts to eliminate and eradicate malaria continue, tools for diagnosis and treatment of cerebral malaria (especially in epidemic outbreaks) will be required. Understanding this pathology has been greatly improved by an autopsy study conducted from 1996 to 2011 which strove to dissect the mechanisms of cerebral malaria in pediatric patients and now seeks interventions to aver that pathology. A review of this study, the advances made by it, and the current strategies will be presented.
This lecture is sponsored by the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases.