For 50 years, researchers have been trying to develop a malaria vaccine, the “holy grail of vaccines.” Malaria has plagued humankind for millennia. Today, it still takes the lives of three children per minute. Can modern science finally overcome this foe with one of the most effective tools ever forged against human disease? Why now do we believe that a vaccine against malaria is possible?
A press briefing Tuesday, 8 July will answer this question and provide journalists with the latest advances in the drive toward a malaria vaccine—an effort that spans almost every continent and that is moving more vaccine candidates into clinical trials than at any other time in history. Sessions will include:
Is a Malaria Vaccine Possible?;
Malaria and Children: Why the Youngest Suffer Most; Latest Advances in Building a Malaria Vaccine; and Zeroing in to Save Africa’s Children: Announcements on New Clinical Trials.
WHEN: 9.30—11.30 Hours, 8 July 2003
WHERE: The Royal Society, Kohn Centre, 6-9 Carlton House
Terrace, London
WHO: Melinda Moree, Director, Malaria Vaccine Initiative,
PATH (Moderator); Adrian Hill, Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow,
University of Oxford; Juliana Akinyi Otieno, Consulting Pediatrician, New
Nyanza General Hospital, Kisumu, Kenya; Filip Dubovsky, Scientific Director,
Malaria Vaccine Initiative, PATH; Pedro Alonso, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona
and Director, Centro de Investigaçao em Saude Manhiça, Mozambique
SARS has provided a graphic example of the impact and easy spread of global infectious disease. But few people know that one third of the world population is at risk of contracting malaria, a disease as common in Africa as the common cold in the Western world. Malaria is now endemic in some 102 nations. The vector that carries malaria, the mosquito, is so efficient, it can breed in a rain-filled leaf or a footprint by the roadside. In some parts of Africa, people can expect up to 500 infectious mosquito bites a year. Both the malaria parasite and the mosquito begin to develop resistance to drugs and insecticides almost as quickly as these tools are developed. A vaccine is needed to help hold the line against malaria.
The Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) is a global program established through
an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Program
for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) (www.path.org).
MVI’s mission is to accelerate the development of promising malaria
vaccines and ensure their availability and accessibility for the developing
world. MVI’s vision is a world where vaccines protect children from
death and severe disease caused by malaria. For information, visit www.MalariaVaccine.org.
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