New approach to malaria vaccine revealed

[ via BBC News / Health ] 20 Dec

A potential new malaria vaccine by an Oxford University team, has shown promise in animal studies.

The Oxford University team is to start safety trials in human volunteers after lab tests showed the vaccine works against all strains of the parasite.

UK scientists recently found the route malaria uses to enter blood cells. They hope to target this pathway in a new approach to developing a vaccine against malaria, which kills hundreds of thousands of people a year.

Read more: BBC News / Health

Read more »

Malaria: Blood entry route discovered

Full Story: BBC Health 10 November 2011

Researchers and sciencetist at Sanger Institute in Cambridge have finally identified the route all strains of the most deadly malaria parasite use to enter red blood cells.

The discovery, scientists believe, gives us a "great hope" for the development of a vaccine, which could provide an effective antidote for this very common, yet deadly disease.

It may be added here for information that Malaria affects 300 million people each year and one million, mostly children die only in sub-Saharan Africa.

Read more »