Will an affordable Malaria vaccine be a reality in the near future?
Credit: BBC.com
Today we’d like to announce the publication of Manav Sharma’s elective report from his time in the haematology department of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA. Read it here.
Meanwhile, in today’s blog, final year Biochemistry student Nicholas Villalobos, writes about the challenges that can be encountered when implementing a new Malaria control strategy in developing countries.
GlaxoSmithKline has introduced a new vaccine called Mosquirix (RTS, S), which is the first of its kind to pass preliminary trials and is sitting in line for a conference in front of 1,500 malaria experts.
A historically significant pandemic known as malaria has subsided to just that, history. However, in poverty-stricken and third world countries, more specifically Africa, this parasitic infection is showing death tolls in the millions annually. Africa is home to problems ranging from economic crisis, apartheid, malnutrition, and endemic diseases. There are still countries in Africa that do not see these problems in the same magnitude as other regions which leads to thinking that public policy and governmental intervention can lead to an invaluable approach to the problem in much of the at-risk areas in Africa. About 90% of deaths from malaria worldwide are found in Africa and almost all of those deaths are from children. Funding for anti-malarial medication has been strong for many years and is continuing with research and medicinal developments ranging in the hundred millions USD (studies predict approx. 8.2:1 malaria compared to AIDS/HIV cases annually) . A worldwide effort has been established to diminish malaria in Africa. This feature is focused on giving some understanding to why over 700,000 children under five die each year in Africa alone, and how some drug-makers such as GlaxoSmithKline are pledging that cost is not an obstacle.
One must understand that drug fabrication and testing is a long and everlasting process that involves mutations in target viruses, side effects, and cost effectiveness. The major dilemma however, in Africa, is distribution and public/private markets. For instance, when bed nets are distributed free of charge to Africans to protect from mosquitoes, there are businesses which wrangle them and sell them off to the population for-profit. This occurs mostly when the nets are not accounted for, which gives raise to the question of whether anti-malarial vaccines could encounter a similar fate. GlaxoSmithKline has introduced a new vaccine called Mosquirix (RTS, S), which is the first of its kind to pass preliminary trials and is sitting in line for a conference in front of 1,500 malaria experts. The drug company claims that once the vaccine is approved, it will make every effort to produce reasonably priced medications. Experts say that quality life can be maintained against malaria for approximately $15 USD per patient. So far more than 5,500 children across Africa have been given the experimental vaccine. With cases ranging in the hundred millions, just from malaria, efforts need to be extended.
The work of GlaxoSmithKline and other organization such as Medicine for Malaria Venture, which provide a base for finances and innovation in medications, the cost effectiveness for a prevention of this endemic in Africa is near in sight. What these organizations and corporations cannot provide is market oversight and distribution practices. Addressing a continent in economic and governmental turmoil usually means addressing business. A study was carried out on patients with malarial symptoms in Africa and the actual treatments delivered by public and private markets, the following is some of the data gathered from the study: Only 37% of all care-seekers obtained an antimalarial over the course of their fever/malaria episode, while 39% obtained painkillers only. A third of all antimalarials were dispensed as under-doses, meaning that only 26% of all care-seekers obtained an adequate antimalarial dose. For the poorest third of households only 31% obtained an antimalarial and 23% an adequate antimalarial dose, compared with 46 and 35%, respectively in the least poor third.
Despite the efforts of malaria eradication from outside sources worldwide, public policy needs to be addressed from within. Geographical definition plays a role in the equation, meaning that the medication needs to be distributed to all at-risk areas in Africa while keeping costs low enough for public markets to subsidize all patients. Lowering the cost of medication itself is not the only answer to the staggering number of deaths in Africa. Dealing with societal enhancement beginning with the way people live may very well have a substantial effect on cases of Malaria considering the habits of mosquitoes and their breeding/feeding habits. Research can adapt medication, and vaccinations can treat patients but the government can cover the pothole in the street that turns into a breeding ground when it rains in the summer. Money may not be a hurdle for outside sources to stop AIDS/HIV, malnutrition, and Malaria but money may be a hurdle for those on the inside.