Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in Small Study

[jpak]

Source: USA Today

TUESDAY, May 10, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental malaria vaccine protects a majority of adults against the mosquito-borne virus for up to one year, according to the results of a small study.

The findings also showed those who were vaccinated couldn't spread the virus to others.

"These results are really important," researcher Kirsten Lyke, from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a university news release. "Malaria has such a devastating effect on children, especially in Africa. This vaccine has the potential to help travelers, military personnel and children in malaria-endemic areas."

Hundreds of millions of people are infected with malaria and more than 500,000 die from the virus each year, the researchers noted. Most fatal cases of malaria involve children under the age of 5, the study authors said.

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Read more: http://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2016-05-10/malaria-vaccine-shows-promise-in-small-study

[mrmpa]

1. My 86 year old mother & I just had a conversation,,,,

about malaria. My Uncle, her brother, came home from the South Pacific at the end of WWII. He came home with malaria & he was sick for a long time. Mom said he had a bad bout almost every month for 2 years.

If this had been available during WWII, many men & women wouldn't have come home sick. I am happy about this.

[Texano78704]

7. If this had been available during WWII

Many millions of poor people around the world would not have died since then. Every two minutes a child dies from malaria. If we could come up with a vaccine for Ebola so quickly, why has it taken so long for Malaria? Part of the reason lies in the fact that it's a disease that primarily affects the world's poor.

[mrmpa]

9. Bingo and the same I think for TB..........

my mom also had a brother who died from TB in 1949.

From wikipedia
One-third of the world's population is thought to be infected with TB.[1] New infections occur in about 1% of the population each year. :In 2014, there were 9.6 million cases of active TB which resulted in 1.5 million deaths. More than 95% of deaths occurred in developing countries. The number of new cases each year has decreased since 2000.[1] About 80% of people in many Asian and African countries test positive while 5–10% of people in the United States population tests positive by the tuberculin test.[10] Tuberculosis has been present in humans since ancient times.[11]

[HuckleB]

2. K & R!

[Saviolo]

3. I am very confused

I thought that malaria was not a virus, but a parasite.

I traveled through a region at risk of malaria in 2005, so that was the last reading I did on it, so maybe my memory is foggy? I remember taking Malarone as a preventive measure before entering the region.

[NuclearDem]

4. No, you're right.

The media is just really terrible at science reporting.

[jpak]

5. It is a microscopic protozoan blood parasite - and vaccines can be made to direct the immune system

to attack it.

Vaccines are antigens derived from disease causing organisms.

Antigens can be derived from viruses, bacteria, and parasites like malaria.

When the immune system recognizes an antigen, it produces T- and B-lymphoycytes to attack the bad guy.

T-cell attack directly

B-cells produce antibodies - proteins that bind to the antigen on the bad guy and gum them up.

Other T- and B-cells act as Memory Cells that cause the immune system to rapidly attack the bad guyif/when it returns = immunity.

Eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) also attacks parasites.

[Saviolo]

8. I was just confused by the wording in the article

They call it a virus consistently through the article. That seemed like such a basic error, I had little faith in the rest of it. But it's just the reporting that's bad, so that's fine!

I can get behind anything that will prevents death in massive numbers, especially if it means that they can reduce the amount of harmful pesticides that they use in many of those countries affected by malaria.

[AllyCat]

6. This is some good news right here!