Malaria Vaccine Spread Through Mosquitoes Themselves

By John Farrier in Health on Jul 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

Tags: malaria, mosquito, vaccine

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Screen Sleuth
Jul 31st, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Hey…the source is usually the cure, ya know. Ever watch the 70′s Incredible Hulk series?
Kalel
Jul 31st, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Yes, but Dr. Banner was never cured. Almost, but not quite, thanks to the unintentional interference of Thor.
Morgan
Jul 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.
K!P
Jul 31st, 2009 at 5:37 pm
cash.

love the back to earth method tho!
eni
Jul 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.
anonblox
Jul 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.
Video Game Dork
Aug 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.
Woogie
Aug 1st, 2009 at 1:39 pm
It was NOT a vaccine by any definition. No more so than a car is a house.
lightning
Oct 13th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
I’ve said a long time ago the leaders should have started a worldwide campain to eradicate the mosquito. Today, the genes could be modified to cause death or sterility and be spread thru the mos breeding. Far more important than going to space.

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