Malaria Vaccine Spread Through Mosquitoes Themselves

Posted by John Farrier in Medicine on July 31, 2009 at 1:26 pm


Medical researchers are developing an innovative way of delivering malaria vaccine:

In a daring experiment in Europe, scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a “vaccine” of live malaria parasites through their bites. The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated comparison group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later.

Link via Instapundit


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COMMENT

8 comments to "Malaria Vaccine Spread Through Mosquitoes Themselves"

  1. Screen Sleuth
    July 31st, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    Hey...the source is usually the cure, ya know. Ever watch the 70's Incredible Hulk series?

  2. Kalel
    July 31st, 2009 at 3:33 pm

    Yes, but Dr. Banner was never cured. Almost, but not quite, thanks to the unintentional interference of Thor.

  3. Morgan
    July 31st, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    I'd love to know what would make a person want to take part in a test where they stood the chance of getting malaria.

  4. K!P
    July 31st, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    cash.

    love the back to earth method tho!

  5. eni
    July 31st, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    Malaria sucks but if you've got access to medical treatment, it's not really all that bad or life threatening, so yeah, cash compensation would do it.

    This is such a brilliant idea. If only this worked on AIDS.

  6. anonblox
    July 31st, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    I'd just like to rain on everyones parade and point out that the mosquitos aren't actually delivering any kind of vaccine. The study just made sure the participants were protected from malaria (via quinine or whatever) while they let malaria bugs bite them, which stimulated the body's natural tendency to form an immunity against it.

  7. Video Game Dork
    August 1st, 2009 at 3:17 am

    I thought the best way to spread a vaccine/cure for sexually transmitted diseases would be to make the cure/vaccine sexually transmitted (perhaps via virus that kils the disease but is harmless to people?)

    It's a bit sci-fi, but if it could be done, i think the cure/vaccine would spread to more people and more quickly than medical personel could distribute it.

  8. Woogie
    August 1st, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    It was NOT a vaccine by any definition. No more so than a car is a house.


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