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THE QUEST FOR the world’s first malaria vaccine appears to have taken a big step: A study in Africa shows experimental shots cut the risk of disease in young children by half.
The initial results from a final stage of vaccine testing were released Tuesday, and the vaccine’s developers called it a milestone in helping to tame one of the world’s most devastating killers.
However, the vaccine won’t be available for at least three years, as crucial further testing must be completed to see how well it works in infants and how long protection lasts. Then the vaccine must be reviewed by government agencies in Europe and in individual African countries.
“We still have a way to go,” Tsiri Agbenyega, lead researcher for the African study, said in a conference call with reporters.
The early results show the vaccine is only about 50 percent effective, significantly lower than the protection seen in more common vaccines. But some experts said it’s a vast improvement over the current situation, and could still save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Globally, malaria kills nearly a million people annually. More than 90 percent of them live in Africa, and most are young children and pregnant women.
Scientists have been trying for decades to develop a malaria vaccine and the one tested – developed by GlaxoSmithKline – is furthest along. Without a vaccine, efforts have concentrated on malaria drugs and other ways to prevent infection such as mosquito bed netting and insecticides.
The new vaccine targets a malaria parasite found in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria spreads through mosquitoes, which bite people and flush malaria parasites into the bloodstream. The parasites cause bouts of high fever and can end in fatal organ failure.
The new study – still under way – began in 2009 and involves more than 15,000 children in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. The results focus on about 6,000 children ages 5 to 17 months. A year after three doses, the vaccinated children had about half as many cases of malaria as a group that didn’t get the vaccine.
Although there are an array of vaccines against viruses and bacteria, there has never been an effective vaccine against a parasite, which is a more complicated organism. Adding to the complexity is there are five species of malaria parasites – the new vaccine is designed specifically to protect against the deadliest one, which is common in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Good for them for having the foresight and courage to go ahead with this in the face of Russian threats.
- “Erdogan says he could still slam the door shut if Sweden and Finland don’t follow through on their promises, which include possible extradition agreements.”
Erdogan is up for a difficult election in June next year, so this isn’t going to be resolved any time soon. He sees the extraditions as actual promises, and ignores the fact that in countries with a functional rule of law, unlike in his own, it isn’t governments that decide on extraditions, but the judges.
I’m not expecting the Swedes and Finns to start chucking people under the bus – that isn’t even possible unless they start corrupting their judiciaries. It’s rather more likely that this won’t be settled until next Summer, with Erdogan upping the antics right up to the election, because it plays well to his base.
@Mick Tobin: it was reported in Sweden that Erdogan expects the extradition of over 30 individuals that Turkey regards as serious terrorists.
It was also reported that Sweden agreed to label the PKK and other kurdish groups as terrorist organisations, which of course will make the extradition of said individuals easier.
Sweden also dropped their ban on selling weapons to Turkey.
@Moss Cotter: The PKK is already labeled a terrorist organisation by the EU, and therefore also by Sweden and Finland.
‘Other Kurdish groups’ implies the YPG, the boots on the ground in the fight against IS – I do not see the Swedes and Finns going that far. Moreover, Erdogan also wants Gulenists extradited, which is even less likely to be approved by the courts.
At most there might be an extradition or two of PKK members, but I think it’s more likely that the formal Nato membership will only be ratified after the Turkish election of June 2023.
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