Malaria, one of the greatest threats to human life in places like Zambia, Kenya, and the broader sub-Saharan Africa, may have met its mortal match. A malaria vaccine that Bill Gates has backed whole-heartedly (which is to say, affluently) was just approved by the European Medicines Agency. It’s called Mosquirix.
FINAL TESTING GROUNDS for the malaria vaccine
The next step for this malaria vaccine is for it to be reviewed and tested by the World Health Organization. In order for Moquirix to pass, consent and support must be gained from individual countries.
aFFECTED DEMOGRAPHICS
Initially, trials completed thus far have shown the vaccine is most effective in infants and toddlers, between the ages of 5 and 17 months. This would cut the number of present malaria cases by nearly half. For babies younger than this, the malaria vaccine caused the number of cases to drop by 27%.
WHY THE CHILDREN?
Mosquirix is best suited for the youngest children for a few reasons. Firstly, their immune system is still developing, so the malaria vaccine can be made a part of the child’s immune system’s fundamental structure, instead of an added misnomer in adulthood. Secondly, since a child’s immune system is weak in this stage of their life, it is also when they are most susceptible to malaria.
HOW DOES THE VACCINE WORK?
Mosquirix is rather unique. Most vaccines go straight to the bloodstream, but Mosquirix, having been designed to preclude disease from a parasite, actually prevents Malaria from producing and multiplying itself in the liver, before it ever has a chance to enter the patient’s bloodstream and cause the symptomatic signs .
PRESCRIBED DOSAGE
The new vaccine is administered in four doses: the first three occur one month apart, and the final booster dose is administered one and a half years later to reinforce protection from the disease.
WHY PREVENT A DISEASE THAT’S CURABLE?
Despite this disease’s being completely preventable and perfectly treatable, Malaria has killed 584,000 people in 2013, ninety percent of which happened exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa. What’s worse, 83% killed were under the age of five.
According to the World Health Organization, Malaria is the fifth largest killer in sub-Saharan Africa.
The project responsible for bringing this vaccine into successful project, Path, is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which pumped over $200 million into the vaccine’s development and testing.
HARROWING WAIT
Unfortunately, this vaccine is not yet licensed in countries where malaria is most widespread. The World Health Organization anticipates that, until 2017, these countries will be on their own.
