Fats & Fakes: Towards improved control of malaria

Effective malaria control reduced the malaria burden worldwide tremendously. Simultaneously, the epidemiology of malaria is changing and has become more complex. To continue the progress of the last decade, this thesis addressed several areas of importance in the field of malaria. Since effective malaria treatment is one of the pillars of malaria control, there is a need for good quality antimalarial drugs. We investigated the prevalence of poor-quality drugs in Gabon and evaluated a handheld technique for faster and easier detection of poor-quality drugs. Furthermore, this thesis contributed to the knowledge of laboratory parameters in malaria. Characteristic serum lipid and lipoprotein changes occur during malaria. These findings may provide new insights in the pathophysiology of malaria, potentially leading to novel treatment approaches.