October 9, 2023
A VACCINE maga WILL REALLY HATE:
New Malaria Vaccines Offer a Real Shot at Fighting the Disease (MARYN MCKENNA, OCT 9, 2023, Wired)
Last week, the World Health Organization gave its recommendation to a vaccine formula called R21/Matrix-M, developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, following preprint publication of Phase 3 results that showed 68 to 75 percent efficacy. (The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.) That comes just three months after the rollout of a separate vaccine called RTS,S/AS01, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, which achieved 55 percent efficacy. The WHO approved that formula in October 2021.The RTS,S vaccine is beginning to be distributed in 12 African nations. After some regulatory steps, the R21 vaccine is expected to debut next year. Together, they could make an extraordinary difference in the survival of children in tropical countries--though experts say it is far too soon to abandon traditional tools, such as bed nets, that have kept malaria imperfectly suppressed until now."Up to 620,000 people die of malaria every year. It's a huge economic burden on countries," says Lisa Stockdale, a senior immunologist in the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute and a member of the R21 research team
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 9, 2023 12:00 AM
