this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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'We could eradicate malaria by 2040’ says expert after revolutionary vaccine is approved by WHO (theconversation.com)
submitted 11 months ago by Bebo@literature.cafe to c/science@beehaw.org
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People have been trying to make malaria vaccines for over 100 years. Well over 100 vaccines have gone into clinical trials in people. Very, very few have worked to any degree.

Malaria is not a virus, it’s not a bacterium. It’s a protozoan parasite, some thousands of times larger than a typical virus. A good measure of that is how many genes it has. Covid has 13, malaria has about 5,500. This is one of the reasons that malaria is super complex.

With the help of the revolutionary new R21/Matrix vaccine the disease could be eradicated by 2040 (as claimed).

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[–] TheRaven@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Luckily malaria isn’t spreading where all the anti-vaxxers are. Argue all they want, it’ll save so many lives.

[–] StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk 5 points 11 months ago

Perhaps anti-vaxx missionaries can do for malaria what christian missionaries do for HIV?

I can totally imagine them setting up camps, teaching people to just "believe in their immune system", discouraging proven medicine in the process.

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thankfully this has been true up till now!

[–] TheRaven@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

From what I read, malaria isn’t spread human-to-human, so it matters more directly whether you yourself have been vaccinated. Herd immunity isn’t much of a factor. If malaria started spreading near you, get vaccinated against it. Those who don’t would die.

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 3 points 11 months ago

Yes, a malaria vaccine would be just to protect yourself from getting malaria.