New research adds to a mounting body of evidence linking infection to neurological disorders

Arthur Scott-Geddes

Deputy Editor, Global Health Security

Arthur Scott-Geddes is Deputy Editor for The Telegraph’s Global Health Security desk. He was previously the paper’s Weekend Foreign Editor and before that a foreign correspondent in Germany and Pakistan. He has reported on disease outbreaks, war and humanitarian crises from Africa to the Middle East and Asia.

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Published 20 April 2026 5:56pm BST

Severe malaria may be doing long-lasting damage to children’s brains, according to a major study in Uganda.

Researchers collected data on a group of nearly 1,000 children up to 15 years after infection and found that those who had survived cerebral malaria or severe anaemia caused by malaria performed worse on cognitive tests many years later.

Cerebral malaria is considered the most severe form of the disease and occurs when infected blood cells get stuck inside small blood vessels in the brain,…