Facts, not Fantasy

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Another One Bites the Dust

Malaria has a vaccine which is reported to drop malaria infection rates by around 50%, which is cause for immense celebration.

The malaria vaccine is the first vaccine produced against a parasite rather than a pathogen and if the efficiency rate is to hold this would result in a massive drop in cases and in mortality. Roughly 800,000 people a year die from Malaria per year and a 50% infection drop would halve that.

This is without the countless man hours and pain caused by this disease, remembering that there are roughly 225 million cases of malaria per year and that malaria is a serious disease. The sheer amount of money saved in medication and treatment will be astounding particularly since the people this will benefit the most will be the poorest nations of the world who normally don't have access to the best medication.

It will be a few more years before the vaccine is released but clinical trials are promising. This is 30 years of hard work that have come to fruition even if the immunity doesn't last long. 

1 comment:

  1. If this vaccine pans out, it will, as you said, have a huge impact on malaria incidence and mortality. Combined with prophylaxis, repellents and netting, as well as mosquito population control measures, we're another step closer to getting rid of this disease!

    ReplyDelete

Please keep posts here respectful. Those that cross boundaries will be deleted, and then placed in a special place for future ridicule.