Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Malaria Vaccine Hopes To Fight Every Strain Of The Illness

By Dr Paul Conley


Malaria - a threatening and most likely devastating condition that can affect travellers to all parts of the Earth rife with mosquitoes, malaria is thought to cause approximately 655,000 deaths every single year. With extensive understanding of the risks posed by malaria and the inner workings of the condition, travellers to parts of the world such as sub-Saharan Africa or Asia should not enter these areas without initially taking a useful malaria vaccine.

But malaria is notoriously hard to fight, given the actual number of parasite strains that will cause the illness. Now, a group of UK scientists have started work on a phenomenal new malaria vaccine that, at these early stages, shows evidence of defending against every known strain of the parasite.

Malaria - Why Is It So very hard To Beat?

Malaria is a condition that's caused by parasites that enter the bloodstream and begin to place strain on the body. These parasites can live inside mosquitoes without causing harm, and it's due to this that a bite from a mosquito can allow the disease to enter the body.

Any malaria vaccine must work against the parasite's antigens, but these have until now been so diverse that no single medication can protect against each alternative. But the new research indicates that parasites utilise a precise protein receptor in order to enter the red blood cells - this is called RH5. If this receptor can be targeted with a malaria vaccine, it becomes impossible for the malaria parasites to go into the bloodstream and reproduce.

So far, the malaria vaccine research team has tested a few of the most typical parasites responsible for the condition and discovered that their RH5-targeted vaccine stops every single one of them.

Malaria Vaccination Not To Be Underestimated

Setting the base for the development of a new malaria vaccine, these recent results could actually change the way that malaria is dealt with for overseas visitors as well as those that live in risky locations. Nonetheless with strong approval and testing regimes in place, such a vaccination is probably not going to be available for at least 10 years.

However, in the meantime, there are several very efficient malaria vaccination treatments that target the most common parasitic strains. The commonest selections are Malarone and Lariam. By taking such treatment before, during and after your foreign travel, you should be really confident that you're protected against the most frequently encountered kinds of malaria.




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