An inspired marriage of Sixties Cambodian pop and West Coast psychedelia, Dengue Fever are set to rock the festivals this summer, says Tim Cumming

The lives of more than a million children who die each year from malaria could be saved by a new technique for making a drug based on an ancient Chinese herbal remedy first used more than 2,000 years ago.

For Western travellers to malarial parts of the world such as sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and south America, the parasite holds few terrors. Dose yourself with the right prophylactic drug – Malarone is the current gold standard for areas where there is drug resistance – douse yourself with insect repellent and you are unlikely to fall victim to the lethal disease.

Q Our children love animals and are now old enough,at three and five, to enjoy a safari. We'd like to visit a game park but I have heard how there are problems giving malaria pills to children. Would it be safest to give them a homeopathic preparation? P Sims, Manchester

The Australian government has launched an investigation into claims that aboriginal children seized from their parents during the 1920s and 1930s were secretly used as guinea pigs for leprosy treatments.

Jeremy Laurance Don't Fence Me In: leprosy in modern times by Tony Gould BLOOMSBURY pounds 20 (420pp) pounds 18 (free p&p) from 0870 079 8897

QUITE APART from the possible social and cultural consequences of build- ing a dam in Turkey, the public health consequences for people who might end up living near the scheme must be considered. Our research team showed substantial health risks for children living near newly constructed dams (British Medical Journal, 11 September), particularly in respect of malaria but also for schistosomiasis. Given the concern about the resurgence of malaria in south-eastern Europe, questions need to be asked as to what public health interventions will be implemented to safeguard future health in the locality, if the project goes ahead.

Keep malaria at bay with mint

THE BATTLE against malaria, which kills about two millionpeople a year, has entered a new phase with the publication of the first genetic map of the infectious microbe.

MINISTERS HAVE ordered an investigation into the dangers of malaria and other tropical diseases spreading to Britain as the climate warms up.

NEXT WEEK I shall be heading off to India, which means that today I had to start taking my malaria tablets.

AN AUSTRALIAN missionary and his two sons were murdered in Orissa, central eastern India, when a large mob armed with bows and arrows surrounded the car in which they were sleeping early on Saturday, doused it in paraffin and set it on fire. Villagers who tried to come to their rescue were also attacked.

My father is going to Malaysia for an Army reunion. He has not been abroad since he served there in 1947-1948 - when he caught malaria. Could you please advise on vaccinations and general health issues. My father also has chest problems from too much smoking.

In the second part of our week-long series on the culture of criticism, we consider what it means to be a television critic. What is the TV critic's role? What is his relationship with his subject? And what, ultimately, is his objective? By Thomas Sutcliffe