The malaria vaccine is coming ...

- Discovery: Dr. Vihari shadow

- Despite the prevalence of malaria and the fact that scientists have been searching for it for decades, no vaccine has yet been found!

On November 9, 190, Charles Alfonse Lavera discovered the parasite of mankind's greatest enemy, malaria, in Constantine's military hospital. Mankind's war against the malaria parasite is still ongoing. Now it has taken on a monstrous form and it looks like man will soon win this battle. This fight is going on on many fronts. To prevent the spread of malaria. like this. Malaria, an anti-malarial vaccine to prevent malaria from being applied and an effective drug to cure malaria if it has occurred are the main strategies of this war.

We all know that malaria is a mosquito-borne disease. The malaria mosquito is the greatest enemy of mankind. In our country, it is rare to find a person who has not been a victim of mosquitoes and malaria. The murmur of the mosquito does not allow us to take the chain. Mosquito bites wake us up. Sitting on the exposed part of our body sucks our blood from Tess. But let us sign all these difficulties. But when mosquitoes suck blood, they inject malaria parasites like an 'injection'. We suffer from malaria, which we have known for many years. Millions of people worldwide die of malaria each year. Millions of people go to bed with it every year. Malaria is also the biggest public health problem in India.

Globally, in recent years, about 200 million people have contracted malaria each year. In 2015, about 200,000 people, about 4% of whom were in Africa, died from the disease. Children under the age of 5 are also the most vulnerable group to malaria. In 2016, these children accounted for 6% of malaria deaths worldwide. Most malaria cases and deaths occur in African regions. However, Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, the western Pacific and the Americas are also at risk.

Malaria is spread by a female mosquito called 'Anopheles'. Which are called 'malaria vectors'. But it is important to remember that mosquitoes are the only carriers of the malaria parasite. It grows in the body of a parasitic mosquito. This parasite is called 'parasite' in English. There are five types of malaria parasites. Of these, two species - Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax - are the most common types of malaria. India has 2% cases of first type and 20% cases of second type malaria. Cases of Plasmodium falciparum type malaria are increasing and it is more dangerous because they are rapidly developing resistance against the traditional malaria drug Chloroquine.

Malaria parasites, in mosquitoes and in humans, go through different cycles. The mosquito enters the human body after completing a life cycle. Resistance cells like the defense line from the human body eliminate most of them. But some of them reach Plasmodium liver cells. It grows in the liver for one to two weeks. And attacks blood cells. At that time we get chills, even if we put blankets on the blankets, the chills do not go away and we get fever.

Malaria does not apply even if some humans are bitten by a mosquito and the parasite Plasmodium enters the body. This is because they have a natural resistance to malaria. In a non-immune person, symptoms usually appear 10-15 days after the bite of an infected mosquito. The first symptoms are fever, headache and chills. But if left untreated within 6 hours, Plasmodium falciparum malaria can lead to serious illness, often leading to death. After the discovery of this earlier quinine and then DDT, it seemed that the disease could be controlled, but the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum did not bind to the conventional chloroquine pill. Disinfectant DDT Also does not affect.

To control this disease, we should develop an anti-malarial vaccine as a way to make our body more resistant to malaria. If a truly effective vaccine could be found, the human war against this deadly disease could be won for thousands of years. Efforts have been made for many years to find such a vaccine. But it has not been one hundred percent successful. This is because the AIDS that causes AIDS is HIV. And like the flu virus, the malaria parasite is constantly changing its form and characteristics. Thus Plasmodium parasitic species are complex, multicellular organisms that are active with thousands of genes. For one, it is more complex than a simple virus, with more than 2,000 genes. In comparison, SARS-Covid-2, the virus that causes rhubarb-12, is made up of about 30 genes. Second, it is well known for its ability to suppress and modulate the immune response, and actively produce variants of surface proteins that inhibit the antibody response. Finally, it has a complex life cycle, consisting of five different stages or forms in human blood and liver, some inside red blood cells and some outside. Therefore, it is difficult to develop a vaccine. Which can target all its various forms.

Developing a powerful malaria vaccine has been a struggle for decades. The only vaccine used is known as Easy, G. The malaria vaccine is being used in some parts of Africa to prevent the disease. Its results are good but its effectiveness is low. Up to 50% effective in first year. Over the course of a year, the resistance decreases by about 5%. The vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline and sold as Mosquirix, also comes with a worrying side effect.

Researchers at Oxford University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, pharmaceutical company Nova Vax, Serum Institute of India and Institute de Richarche en Sciences d'la-Sante have recently tested the second phase of the new vaccine E31. In the initial trial, Oxford's R21 (E21) was the first vaccine to meet the 5% efficacy standard, which is now in phase 3 trial. The R21 is still being tested, but so far, it has been 5% effective in preventing the disease. Recently, a multinational team led by Oxford vaccine expert Adrian Hill reported promising results for the second phase. They tested on about 200 children and young children in Burkina Faso and found that 3% of those who received three doses of the vaccine were protected against the disease a year later.

These exciting results provide the hope that we may eventually have a highly effective and safe malaria vaccine that could save the lives of countless children in Africa and elsewhere. Now the question is, will the effectiveness of the vaccine survive over a wider age range? It remains to be seen.