Malaria prevention advance?

IRIN (via All Africa) has an interesting piece on malaria prevention efforts in Burkina Faso. Officials have launched a small project of the indoor spraying of the insecticide Bendiocarb. The World Health Organization notes that such programs are most effective when at least 80 percent of households are sprayed. Right now, the spraying is only occurring in the southwestern part of Burkina Faso, due to cost. The country counted some 4 million cases of malaria last year.

World Malaria Day

Today is World Malaria Day, a day designed to publicize international efforts to combat one of the world's leading (non-man made) causes of death.

Click here to learn more.

On a personal note, I fortunately never contracted malaria when I lived in West Africa but I knew many people who did. Fortunately none of them died, but it's a very debilitating condition and pretty much renders you useless. Even if it doesn't kill the infected, it can severe brain damage if untreated.

Malaria vaccine by 2012?

There were many news reports on the apparent success of an experimental malaria vaccine called Mosquirix that was administered to infants.

A clinical trial in Mozambique of 214 infants aged 10 to 18 weeks found the vaccine was safe and reduced new infections by 65 percent over a three-month period after treatment. Clinical illness was cut by 35 percent over six months, reported Reuters.

Big pharmaceutical multinationals have come in heavy criticism by non-governmental organizations in recent years for spending bucketloads of money researching drugs for nuisances like impotence but relatively little on several tropical diseases that kill people in poorer countries.

Perhaps in response to this public pressure, Mosquirix's producer, GlaxoSmithKline, has spent some $300 million developing the drug and expects to spend as much as another $100 million in the future.

Glaxo has promised to sell Mosquirix at low prices in developing countries. The exact price will be negotiated with purchasers, who are likely to be multilateral groups who would cover the cost on behalf of countries where malaria is endemic.

How drug piracy undermines anti-malaria efforts

The BBC World Service's Assignment has a half hour radio documentary on drug piracy and the counterfeit drugs which threaten to jeopardise the fight against malaria.