Scientists Develop Malaria Vaccine That Could Be a Game-Changer
Malaria currently claims the lives of 400,000 children a year.
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Scientists have developed a highly effective vaccine to prevent malaria, which kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, latest trials show.
The Jenner Institute of Oxford University announced that during their phase two trials concerning 450 children in Burkina Faso over 12 months, the vaccine achieved 77% efficacy, surpassing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal of 75% efficacy, according to the Guardian.
116 districts in India reported zero malaria cases in 2020: Health Minister
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Harshvardhan also made detailed gains in this direction under the leadership of PM (File)
New Delhi:
116 districts of India have reported zero malaria cases in 2020 and have achieved remarkable success in reducing the burden of the disease in 84.5 percent cases in the country and 83.6 percent deaths, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday.
He also said that the country’s achievement in this regard has been well recognized by the World Malaria Report of 2018, 2019 and 2020.
The minister said that the World Health Organization (WHO) attributed India’s success to rejuvenating political commitment, strengthening technical leadership that focused on prioritizing the right mix of vector control measures, and eradication. Domestic funding has increased to support effective implementation of strategies.
According to the latest
World Malaria Report, released in November 2020, there were 229 million cases of malaria in 2019 compared to 228 million cases in 2018. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 409,000 in 2019. There is an urgent need to find new ways to combat the growing mosquito resistance to pesticides and malaria parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs. Gene drives are being tested as a new approach. In a new study, researchers from the Imperial College London reported that their approach brings gene drives one step closer as a potential strategy for eliminating malaria.
Their study was published in the journal
“Gene drives for mosquito population replacement are promising tools for malaria control,” wrote the researchers. “However, there is currently no clear pathway for safely testing such tools in endemic countries. The lack of well-characterized promoters for infection-relevant tissues and regulatory hurdles are further obstacles for their design a
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