En 2021, la malaria causó 619 000 muertes; 77% de ellas entre niños menores de cinco años y 96% en África. Pero ahora, tras décadas de investigación (y varios intentos fallidos), existe una nueva vacuna contra la malaria, llamada R21/Matrix‑M (a partir de ahora, R21), que es eficaz en un 70 a 78% de los casos. Aunque se necesitan tres dosis para alcanzar ese nivel de protección, y un refuerzo un año después, la vacuna (un desarrollo conjunto de la Universidad de Oxford y del Instituto de Serología de la India) es barata: su costo de producción es entre dos y cuatro dólares por dosis, comparable al de otras vacunas de uso pediátrico.… Seguir leyendo »
Right now, enough material to make 20 million doses of a lifesaving malaria vaccine is sitting on a shelf in India, expected to go unused until mid-2024. Extrapolating from estimates by researchers at Imperial College London, these doses—enough for 5 million children—could save more than 31,000 lives, at a cost of a little more than $3,000 per life. But current plans by the World Health Organization to distribute the vaccine are unclear and have been criticized as lacking urgency.
Growing up in rural Zambia, I was infected with malaria multiple times. The worst case was when I was in primary school in the year 2000.… Seguir leyendo »
Want to guess the most dangerous animal in the world? When my team asked children in Edinburgh during a public outreach event with schools, they said sharks, alligators, spiders and lions. All good guesses, but none on target. The deadliest animal is the mighty mosquito, which kills more than 1 million people a year. Almost 700 million people contract a mosquito-borne illness each year. Mosquitoes carry serious diseases like malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Zika virus and chikungunya that not only kill, but also result in pain, disability and prolonged illness.
Among mosquito-borne diseases, malaria is the most deadly. Scientists believe it has killed more people than any other disease spread by the insects in history.… Seguir leyendo »
Like many who work in public health, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, I’ve been waiting my whole career for a malaria vaccine. And even longer than that: I suffered from severe malaria when I was 10.
The World Health Organization has now endorsed the first vaccine as a complementary tool for widespread use among children in at-risk areas, including my country, Senegal. This announcement, hailed as “historic” by the W.H.O. and global health experts worldwide, is indeed cause for celebration. Malaria is a preventable disease that has been virtually eliminated in wealthy countries and yet kills around 400,000 people a year, mostly African children.… Seguir leyendo »
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