[CE] Malaria Vaccine

For my current events post, I used this article about a vaccine that may reduce the risk of catching malaria where it is extrememly prevalent in Africa.

Malaria has been a huge problem and probably one of the leading causes of death in Africa. Although this vaccine was created back in the 1980’s and started testing in the 1990’s, there are still many question about how effective the vaccine will be, when the vaccine may wear off, and the morality of it all. The article describes the process of the trials like this:

Trial results suggested the vaccine reduced the risk of developing clinical malaria by 56 per cent among children aged five to 17 months. They received three doses of the vaccine.

The trial is under way at 11 sites, including Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. At least 15,460 infants and young children are involved in what GSK described as "the largest malaria vaccine trial to date".

At least we are aware that this process is underway and gradually getting better even since the vaccine’s “production”, shall we say, in the 1980’s. The trial is set to continue for two more year, which is not a long time compared to how long it’s been since the created of the vaccine until now.  Although this is not a done deal and only reduces risks of Malaria by 47 percent, this is still a huge drop and helps the odds again Malaria. It’s the first step, and I personally think we are headed in the right direction.