American scientists have developed a revolutionary new vaccine which could spell the end of malaria, a disease that kills over 400,000 people a year and has for centuries been a major threat to travellers visiting tropical regions.
The novel vaccine uses mRNA technology, the same system used in the Pfizer-BioNTec vaccine against Covid-19. It looks like mRNA technology may help eradicate malaria, as well as helping to defeat Covid.
Scientists from the esteemed Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and Naval Medical Research Center partnered with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Acuitas Therapeutics to develop the vaccine. It works very well on mice and scientists are optimistic it will work equally well on humans, when clinical trials begin.
“Our vaccine achieved high levels of protection against malaria infection in mice,” confirmed Katherine Mallory, a WRAIR researcher at the time the scientists’ findings were published in npj Vaccines, an open access journal dedicated to highlighting the most important scientific advances in vaccine research and development.
“While more work remains before clinical testing, these results are an encouraging sign that an effective, mRNA-based malaria vaccine is achievable,” Mallory told Medical Xpress.
In severe cases, symptoms of malaria can include seizures, confusion, kidney failure, breathing difficulty and coma. The disease is sometimes fatal.
Travellers to infected areas cannot eliminate the threat of malaria unless they avoid being bitten by mosquitos. This is easier said than done. Mozzies are persistent and drug-resistant strains of malaria mean that no antimalarial drug is 100% effective. Travellers taking antimalarial drugs still need to protect themselves from mosquito bites.
The NSW Health Department advises that some current anti-malaria medications need to be started several weeks before travel, adding: “It is also very important to continue taking antimalarials as directed after you leave the affected area. Sometimes this means taking antimalarials for up to 4 weeks after you leave.”
To protect against mosquitoes and reduce the risk of the diseases they transmit, NSW Health Department recommends:
- Cover-up with a loose-fitting long sleeved shirts and long pants when outside
- Apply mosquito repellent to exposed skin
- Take special care during peak mosquito biting hours. The mosquitoes that transmit malaria are most a twilight hours (dawn and dusk) and into the evening.
- Stay and sleep in screened or air-conditioned rooms
- Use a bed net if the area where you are sleeping is exposed to the outdoors. Nets are most effective when they are treated with a pyrethroid insecticide, such as permethrin. Pre-treated bed nets can be purchased before travelling, or nets can be treated after purchase.
- Avoid known areas of high mosquito-borne disease transmission or outbreaks.
Malaria is a major threat to children and pregnant women living in the most impoverished and resource-limited areas of the world, WRAIR notes.
Travellers to malarial regions “must employ anti-malarial countermeasures or also be at risk of grave illness or death”.
In 2019, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria globally, killing about 409,000 people.
Written by Peter Needham
