MALARIA:
Spread of the disease:
– Half the world’s population is at risk of getting malaria. It is estimated that every year up to 300 million cases of malaria in the world, and that up to one million people die of the disease.
– Malaria is found especially in the African countries south of the Sahara, where 90 percent of all cases occur. Here it is especially children under five who are infected and up to 800,000 children under five die each year due to malaria. The figures are uncertain because many of these cases are recorded.
– In recent years, the Preventive interventions for disease borne fruit and the number of malaria deaths has dropped, even among children. Yet door approximately one child per minute from malaria.
Source: Doctors Without Borders.
Scientists across Africa are celebrating the news that the world’s
first vaccine against malaria has been approved by the European
Medicines Agency.
The vaccine, named Mosquirix, was given the green light on Friday
after more than 30 years of research, detailed in 230,000 pages of data.
It now means that the vaccine will be examined by the World Health
Organisation and, if approved, could be administered to children across
Africa within the next few years.
“It’s massively significant,” said Allan Pamba, vice president for
pharmaceuticals in East Africa for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which has
spent more than $356 million (£230m) to date on finding a vaccine. GSK
expects to invest a further $200 to $250 million until development is
completed. In January 2001, GSK and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative,
with grant monies from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to PATH,
entered into a public-private partnership to develop a vaccine. PATH has
invested more than $200 million, much of it from the Gateses.
“Malaria has been incredibly difficult to crack. It’s been
tremendously frustrating. But we are all immensely proud to have reached
this milestone.”
The WHO has said it may give a policy recommendation by the end of
the year; African authorities will then take their decisions about how
and where they would implement a vaccination programme.
But, given that an estimated 600,000 people die from malaria every
year – 90 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa – Dr Pamba said the health
ministers he spoke to on a regular basis were eagerly awaiting the
arrival of a vaccine.
An important piece of the puzzle
The Company’s clinical studies with the vaccine shows that it can
reduce disease incidence among young children by between 27 and 46
percent, but it does not protect completely against malaria, which
mainly affects babies and small children in the poorest countries in
Africa.
WHO is concerned that they may be ready with a political recommendation by the end of the year. Subsequently, the African authorities decide how they will implement the vaccination program.
Michael Theisen, who researches malaria at the Danish State Serum
Institute, calls it great news, since the vaccine will save lives and
improve health in Africa.
– It is really a great thing, because we have never had a vaccine before against malaria. It has been
Malari Mosquito
studied in very many trials and is proven to have great effect.
Some other natural medications against malaria.
Research to develop antimalarial drugs led to the discovery of artemisinin, which is extracted from Artemisia annua,
a herb traditionally used as a fever treatment. While most TCM herbs
are boiled at high temperature that can damage the active ingredient in Artemisia annua,
one traditional source says that this herb is to be steeped in cold
water; knowing this, scientists found that a better extract was obtained
by using a low-temperature ether-based extraction method, and by adding
detoxification and purification processes, they could create a drug
with sufficient active ingredient to be effective.
Licorice Root
Researchers at the Danish University Hospital and Pharmaceutical College have found that Chinese licorice root contains substances that have activity against malaria parasites that has become resistant to a number of means. One of the active substances is a relatively simple aromatic compound licochalcon A.
It is not recommended that you simply fill with liquorice, when traveling in the tropics, as liquorice also contains a substance glycyrrhizin, which causes high blood pressure. Glycyrhizin is an acetal, wherein the OH group in the glycyrrhetinic acid has formed acetal of a carbohydrate.
As for myself as a write i have used the licorice root to chew it and
also close friends that used to suffer from Malaria started chewing it,
and got rid of the malaria. today i do not chew it anymore, but i have
never contracted malaria.
The number of deaths caused by malaria has declined in recent years
thanks to the spread of mosquito nets and medication, but an effective
vaccine can be an important corner piece of the puzzle.
The vaccine is designed to prevent malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum parasite.
It is the first vaccine which counteracts the effects of a parasite.
The vaccine will prevent the parasite from infect and replicate in the
liver, the parasite would then re-enter the blood stream and infect the
red blood cells, leading to the disease symptoms.
A really good start
Michael Theisen call it a really good start, but also emphasized that
there is still a long way and that the puzzle is far from being
completed finished.
–
It is a really good start, and then you have to say that here we have
for the first time something that works, and so shall it be used in
combination with something else. It may be mosquito nets, it can be general economic growth, which we know is good for fighting diseases, says Michael Theisen.
GlaxoSmithKline has promised that the company will not make money on selling Mosquirix. It must be sold at cost price plus five percent to be invested in continued research into malaria.
“Pretty much every health minister I speak to has had malaria,” said
Dr Pamba, who was born in Kenya and now works between Nairobi and
London. “They all want to know when it will be ready.”
Mosquirix, whose scientific name is “RTS,S” has been designed to
prevent malaria caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which is
most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the first vaccine to be
developed which counters the effects of a parasite.
The vaccine is designed to prevent the parasite from infecting,
maturing and multiplying in the liver, after which time the parasite
would re-enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells, leading to
disease symptoms.
The developers carried out a trial program involving more than 16,000
young children, conducted by 13 African research centres in eight
African countries – Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi,
Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
Two groups of children were tested: infants aged from six to 12 weeks, and young children aged five to 17 months.
Data from the trial program demonstrate that over the first 18 months
following three doses of RTS,S, malaria cases were reduced by almost
half in the older group. With infants, cases dropped by 27 per cent.
Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said: “Today’s scientific opinion
represents a further important step towards making available for young
children the world’s first malaria vaccine.
“While RTS,S on its own is not the complete answer to malaria, its
use alongside those interventions currently available such as bed nets
and insecticides, would provide a very meaningful contribution to
controlling the impact of malaria on children in those African
communities that need it the most.”
