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Mahesh

08/11/22 07:00 AM IST

New hope for malaria vaccine

In News 
  • The World Health Organization’s (WHO) recently approved RTS, S/AS01 (Mosquirix) developed by GlaxoSmithKline for immunising children against malaria was a big milestone after decades of gradual progress.
Malaria 
  • Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. It is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito if the mosquito itself is infected with a malarial parasite.
  • There are five kinds of malarial parasites out of which Plasmodium falciparum (parasite is responsible for 70% of cases in India), and Plasmodium vivax (globally, the commonest ones).
  • Malaria kills nearly 600,000 people every year, the majority of whom are children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.
Need of the Vaccine 
  • Globally, there were an estimated 241 million malaria cases in 2020 in 85 malaria-endemic countries.
  • India contributed 1.7% of malaria cases and 1.2% of deaths globally.
  • Most of this increase came from countries in the WHO Africa Region, which accounted for 95% of cases.
  • Malaria deaths increased by 12% globally in 2020 compared with 2019, the majority of whom are children under the age of five.
  • Given the parasite’s very complex life cycle that correlates with protective immunity has been difficult.
RTS,S/AS01 Vaccine 
  • It is named RTS because it was engineered using genes (repeat (‘R’) and T-cell) of the protein of the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite together with a viral surface antigen (‘S’) of the hepatitis B virus (HBsAg).
  • This protein was then mixed with additional HBsAg to improve purification, hence the extra “S”.
  • To boost immune responses, all protein-based recombinant vaccines rely heavily on a strong adjuvant (help vaccines work better). RTS, S is formulated with an adjuvant called AS01 developed at GSK.
Source- Indian Express 

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