Improvements in Malaria Vaccines

(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

Children under the age of five are Malaria's primary victims. Up to 585,000 people die of Malaria in a year and 90% of those victims are in Sub-Sahara Africa. After 30 years of research the first Malaria vaccine has been introduced. It has proven 30% effective in infants and 40% in toddlers. So how does it work?

Malaria is not a virus or a bacteria but an aggressive parasite. For someone to contract Malaria they must first be bitten by a mosquito carrying the parasite. It then takes a few minutes for the parasite to travel to the liver where it remains for five days cultivating until it begins to multiply and then affect the bloodstream introducing the sickness. The victim will then experience fever, chills,  and sweating. The new vaccine targets the parasite while it's in the liver and attempting to multiply. Advancements in the study of the immune system in the last twenty-five years have made the vaccine possible.

Reflection: It's hard to imagine that out of 30 million babies born, over 500k of them will die of Malaria. One line of the article in-particular made me think, "...it's a country where your siblings die [while you're growing up]." It's hard to imagine how Malaria affects family-life in Africa and economically the affect is calculated in billions of dollars. It will be exciting to see the second generation of this vaccine's impact.

The first malaria vaccine will not eradicate the disease yet - but will save millions of lives
Written by: Peter Guest