Malaria Vaccine - good news for once!

[pdurrant]

There's very encouraging news from a trial of a new malaria vaccine. It gave 77% protection. There's a bigger trial taking place to confirm the results, but this is excellent news. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56858158

Malaria infects around 200 million and kills around 400,000 people every year.

(For comparison, SARS-CoV-2 has infected around 150 million and killed around 3 million over the past year)

If this vaccines turns out to work as well as this result suggests, it could make a massive difference to the incidence of malaria.

This is not only because people will be directly protected against the disease by the vaccine, but because malaria requires mosquitos to have bitten an infected human before they can pass the parasite on to other humans. If the number of people infected with malaria drops, so will the transmission rate. If enough people are immune to the disease, we might wipe malaria out altogether.

[binaryhermit]

I'd like to caution that humanity doesn't have a good track record when it comes to completely eradicating diseases.

But even if we reduce malaria deaths by, say, 50% that's a big thing.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I'd like to caution that humanity doesn't have a good track record when it comes to completely eradicating diseases.

Yeah, only done one so far. Polio's nearly there. The Guinea Worm is even more nearly there. Let's hope the 2020s will be the decade when another human disease is made extinct.

[cromag]

I'll second that!

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Let's hope the 2020s will be the decade when another human disease is made extinct.

I also hope that.

But — making a common disease rare helps humanity way more than making a rare disease extinct, almost regardless of how you define common and rare.

[OtinG]

That is good news. My dad contracted malaria in the SW Pacific during WWII. According to mom, he had uncontrollable chills and issues with it for many years thereafter. It is a bad disease even if you survive it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

But — making a common disease rare helps humanity way more than making a rare disease extinct, almost regardless of how you define common and rare.

Unless the disease is only rare because of human attempts at eradication. Polio and Guinea worm are rare now only because of attempts at eradication. If we stopped trying to eradicate them, they would swiftly return in large numbers.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

If we stopped trying to eradicate them, they would swiftly return in large numbers.

So sad that so many vaccinators have lose their lives in trying to eradicate the 'last mile' - mainly women of course.

Let's also hope that Boris Johnson's initiative to develop effective treatment for Covid-19 bears fruit - we did it for HIV/Aids.

BR

[Greg Anos]

We had nearly eradicated malaria in the early 1960's. Then people started paying attention to Rachel Carson.

[pdurrant]

A gentle reminder to everyone, including me, that this thread is in the lounge.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

That is good news. My dad contracted malaria in the SW Pacific during WWII. According to mom, he had uncontrollable chills and issues with it for many years thereafter. It is a bad disease even if you survive it.

Yep, I can relate. My father contracted malaria in India before Partition, had his last bout in the early 60s, nearly 20 years later.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A gentle reminder to everyone, including me, that this thread is in the lounge.

I will provide the link from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC)

https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/index.html

and quote from it: (US government documents are PD on inception; hence quotable here.)

"With the success of DDT, the advent of less toxic, more effective synthetic antimalarials, and the enthusiastic and urgent belief that time and money were of the essence, the World Health Organization (WHO) submitted at the World Health Assembly in 1955 an ambitious proposal for the eradication of malaria worldwide. Eradication efforts began and focused on house spraying with residual insecticides, antimalarial drug treatment, and surveillance, and would be carried out in 4 successive steps: preparation, attack, consolidation, and maintenance. Successes included elimination in nations with temperate climates and seasonal malaria transmission. Some countries such as India and Sri Lanka had sharp reductions in the number of cases, followed by increases to substantial levels after efforts ceased. Other nations had negligible progress (such as Indonesia, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Nicaragua). Some nations were excluded completely from the eradication campaign (most of sub-Saharan Africa). The emergence of drug resistance, widespread resistance to available insecticides, wars and massive population movements, difficulties in obtaining sustained funding from donor countries, and lack of community participation made the long-term maintenance of the effort untenable. Completion of the eradication campaign was eventually abandoned. "

It was abandoned in 1969.

also from The Lancet:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...612-1/fulltext

See particularly paragraph 6 and 7.

From the World Health Organization:

https://www.who.int/whr/1999/en/whr99_ch4_en.pdf

From the early 1950's to 1963, cases in Sri Lanka fell from over 1 million to 23. (See section "Control Strategies 1950-1990s)

All these sources are non-political and are considered factually reliable.

Now I have nothing but good wishes for the vaccine. But I am not optimistic that it will solve the problem over the long term.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Greg Anos

Now I have nothing but good wishes for the vaccine. But I am not optimistic that it will solve the problem over the long term.

I agree that it probably won't lead to eradication. But I do expect, if the early results prove accurate, that it will lead to a massive reduction in the number of Malaria cases in the world.

[BetterRed]

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1386074015459074049

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1386074015459074049

Thanks! That's rather encouraging.