A Breakthrough in the Fight against Malaria

 by Hamish Orr

Malaria, which is a mosquito borne parasite, is a devastating disease and the 5th biggest killer in Africa, responsible for around 5% of deaths as of 2019. Killing nearly 500,000 a year, mostly children up to the age of 5 it has been a scourge on lower income societies such as those in Western Africa, central and South America as well as the Indian subcontinent. There have been many more deaths from malaria than coronavirus in the past year within Africa, some figures saying 4 times more deaths from malaria in 2020 than coronavirus. 

Previous attempts to fight malaria have been unsuccessful because of the complexity of the malaria pathogen. With over 100 strains of malaria and 5 that cause disease in humans it is more complex than other diseases, most noticeably the coronavirus. There are thousands of genes in the malaria pathogens vs only 16 in coronavirus. 

A new virus has been developed which has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives around the world through the development of a groundbreaking new vaccine which has been in development since 2019. The vaccine, being developed by Oxford university and partners in Burkina Faso has shown record breaking efficacies of 77% at high doses and 71% at a lower dose. The vaccine is now entering phase three of clinical trials demonstrating large scale safety and efficacy. This vaccine is set to reach the World Health Organisations target of a 75% effective malaria vaccine by 2030. 

In the trial 105 of 147 children who received a placebo contracted malaria but out of the 292 who received either a high or low does of the vaccine only 81 contracted malaria, surpassing the 75% efficacy set by the World Health Organisation. The vaccine is set to be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India who have the capability to produce more than 200 million doses when and if it is approved. It is important to note that GlaxoSmithKline has previously had a promising malaria vaccine that failed stage 3 clinical trials, showing that there is still only a chance that a successful vaccine can be discovered. 

Overall, it can be celebrated that we have found a vaccine which shows to be highly effective at reducing infection of malaria and current studies show that it is safe in the population that it has been tested on. There is a long way to go but if all goes to plan, the vaccine will be available in the coming years and will have the potential to most importantly save hundreds of thousands of lives of children but also to serve as an opportunity for developing countries affected to be freed from the affliction of disease so they can focus on developing their economies and livelihoods.