Experimental Malaria Vaccine Proves Effective In Protecting Children

As Sheriff Joe would say, this is a Big F'n Deal.

The eagerly awaited study involving more than 15,000 newborns and babies in seven African countries found the vaccine cut the risk of being infected with the malaria parasite by about half and the chances of getting deathly ill from an infection by more than a third.

While far below the protection provided by many widely used vaccines for other diseases, the results were hailed as a major advance toward one of the most elusive goals in medicine.

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Caused by parasites that are transmitted by infected mosquitoes, malaria sickens more than 200 million people each year and kills nearly 800,000, mostly children in Africa. Controlling malaria has long been one of the top goals of international public health authorities.

It's cost about $500 million to develop which is an amazingly small amount of money compared to the good it will do if this pans out. About $300 million came from the Gates Foundation and the rest from government grants evilllll big pharma (I wonder what the Occupy Wall St. crowd will say about that).

No word on whether or not the vaccine causes retardation in presidential candidates but making that kind of dent would be a huge breakthrough in public health.

posted by DrewM. at 05:22 PM

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