Good news, time for cautious optimism and continued diligence (as ever)!
Remains to be seen how long immunity lasts (early trials showed immunity waning after 12-18 months), frequent re-vaccination wouldn’t be viable in most of the world’s malaria-endemic areas.
This vaccine provides immunity against the sporozoite (first life stage of Plasmodium), so it will only be effective against new infections. I believe there are other vaccines in the pipeline that target multiple life stages of the parasite.
Note that there was an increase in meningitis incidence in the experimental group. This could be random, a result of the placebo vaccine choice, or something else.
There have been good results pairing bed net distribution with vaccination campaigns for other diseases, it would be great to see that kind of program develop.
Good news, time for cautious optimism and continued diligence (as ever)!
Remains to be seen how long immunity lasts (early trials showed immunity waning after 12-18 months), frequent re-vaccination wouldn’t be viable in most of the world’s malaria-endemic areas.
This vaccine provides immunity against the sporozoite (first life stage of Plasmodium), so it will only be effective against new infections. I believe there are other vaccines in the pipeline that target multiple life stages of the parasite.
Note that there was an increase in meningitis incidence in the experimental group. This could be random, a result of the placebo vaccine choice, or something else.
There have been good results pairing bed net distribution with vaccination campaigns for other diseases, it would be great to see that kind of program develop.
Beautiful to see another nail in death’s coffin.