The Malaria and the vaccine candidates

Abstract

The news of the trial of the new malaria vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in cooperation with the Malaria
Vaccine Initiative (sponsored partly by Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation) has provoked this editorial.
Malaria remains one of the oldest afflictions of man. Malaria probably is as old as humanity. It was one of the earliest
fevers to have an academic description in Medicine. Hippocrates (460–370 BC) described the periodicity of malaria at a
time when the disease was endemic in the South of Europe – Greece and Italy. Galen also wrote several treatises in
Rome about malaria. The eradication of malaria from Greece, Italy and the rest of the South of Europe was not by the
use of vaccine but by improved environmental health - mainly drainage. Without water stagnation, the vector of the
malaria parasite, the anopheles mosquito will not breed. The geographical spread of malaria includes Africa, Asia,
Middle-east, South America and parts of Australasia. With frequent Air travels, distance is no longer a barrier to infection
by a tropical disease agent. Imported malaria does occur in London and in other commercial capitals in Europe and
America. The anopheles mosquito which boards a free flight from the Tropics will bite a few more people in London or
elsewhere before dying. Once in a while, clusters of 4 to 5 cases of malaria without travel history are identified in cities in
Europe and United States. Around the world, malaria causes about 500 million clinical diseases yearly with about 1
million deaths per year. The Sub-Saharan Africa carries the brunt with most deaths among children below 5 years of
age.