A malaria vaccine available for routine use would be a major hallmark, but it will only be part of the solution to tackling this preventable infection. Bed nets, insect repellents, malaria drugs and targeted killing of mosquito breeding grounds are also key.
Malaria is spread by the bite of the female anopheline mosquito. These mosquitoes usually bite between dusk and dawn and this is when most transmission of malaria occurs. The parasitic disease kills around 800,000 people a year and remains the leading cause of illness and death around the globe, and is now predominantly a disease affecting Africa, South and Central America, Asia and the Middle East.
People of all ages can contract malaria. Worldwide, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.
Mosquitoes like a humid atmosphere and breed only in fresh water, so their numbers usually increase after periods of heavy rainfall or monsoons. If you get bitten and are unlucky enough to get an infection, you can expect flu-like symptoms - fever, shivering and vomiting. And if left untreated, malaria can lead to anaemia, seizures, coma and death.
A British drug maker is seeking approval for the world's first malaria vaccine after trials showed that it cut the number of cases, although the method is unusual because it involves injecting live but weakened malaria-causing parasites directly into patients to trigger immunity. The company has been developing the vaccine for three decades and it is hoped that the vaccine could be available from as early as 2015 if regulators back licence application.
http://www.travelclinic.ltd.uk/
___________________________________________