GSK malaria vaccine could save millions of lives

The following report published in The Guardian today provides encouraging global health news — GSK’s new vaccine against malaria has been shown to halve the risk of malaria.

Malaria vaccine could save millions of children’s lives

Millions of small children’s lives could be saved by a new vaccine that has been shown to halve the risk of malaria in the first large-scale trials across seven African countries.

The long-awaited results of the largest-ever malaria vaccine study, involving 15,460 babies and small children, show that it could massively reduce the impact of the much-feared killer disease. Malaria takes nearly 800,000 lives every year – most of them children under five. It damages many more.

The vaccine has been in development for two decades – the brainchild of scientists at the UK drug company GlaxoSmithKline, which has promised to sell it at no more than a fraction over cost-price, with the excess being ploughed back into further tropical disease research.

World Malaria Day 2011

Today (April 25) is World Malaria Day — a day to commemorate global efforts to control malaria.  According to the World Health Organization, “the key is to maintain the financial and political commitments to fighting malaria over the next 5 years so that we can reach these ambitious RBM targets and the health-related Millennium Development Goals.”

WHO reports that over 780,000 people died of malaria in 2009, most of them children under the age of five. The disease perpetuates a vicious cycle of poverty in the developing world and malaria-related illnesses and mortality cost Africa’s economy alone approximately USD 12 billion per year.

Key Facts About Malaria (Source:  WHO)

• Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes.
• Malaria is preventable and curable.
• In 2008, malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among African children.
• Malaria can decrease gross domestic product by as much as 1.3% in countries with high disease rates.
• Non-immune travelers from malaria-free areas are very vulnerable to the disease when they get infected.

Image Source:  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

New malaria vaccine shows long-lasting protection

(From Reuters) An experimental malaria vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline provides African children with long-lasting protection, though its effectiveness declines slightly over time, according to recently published trial data.  Scientists conducting the mid-stage trial at the Kenya Medical Research Institute said results showing the shot offered 46 percent protection for 15 months meant it had “promise as a potential public health intervention against childhood malaria in malaria endemic countries.”

Malaria is an infectious disease spread by mosquitoes that threatens up to half the world’s population. Most of its victims are children under five in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Late-stage trials of the GSK vaccine, known as RTS,S or Mosquirix, in 16,000 children in seven countries across Africa are ongoing, with immunizations due to end next month.  If data show the vaccine was effective, it could be licensed and rolled out as soon as 2015.

GSK chief executive Andrew Witty has said that if RTS,S proved effective in final-stage trials it would be sold at a price that those who need it most can afford. The company has said it was planning for a profit margin of 5 percent over the cost of making the vaccine, and that would be reinvested in new vaccines for malaria and other neglected diseases.

WHO calls for better monitoring of anti-malarial drugs

According to the UN, only 34 per cent of countries with endemic malaria are complying with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to routinely monitor anti-malarial medicines.

The WHO’s “Global report on anti-malarial drug efficacy and drug resistance: 2000-2010” calls on countries to be more vigilant in drug monitoring to allow for earlier detection of resistance to anti-malarial treatments.

Artemisinin is currently the most effective treatment against malaria, but resistance to the drug when used alone to treat the disease was found in February 2009 on the Cambodia-Thailand border.

The use of artemisinin monotherapy is considered an important factor in the survival and spread of drug resistant strains. If the efficacy of the artemisinin component continues to decline, the risk grows of increased resistance to other drugs used in the combination.

Global Fund to combat AIDS, TB and malaria receives $11 billion boost

Donor countries, private foundations, corporations and individuals meeting at the United Nations have pledged over $11.5 billion in new funding over the next three years for the global partnership to fight three killer diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. (UN News)

“At a time when so many Governments are tightening their belts, these commitments send a powerful message. It shows that many world leaders want to do the right thing beyond their borders, too,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who chaired the two-day replenishment meeting for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Over the past eight years, programmes supported by the Global Fund have saved an estimated 5.7 million lives, provided AIDS treatment for 2.8 million people and TB treatment for 7 million people, and distributed 122 million bed nets to prevent malaria.

The Global Fund was created in 2002 to scale up resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need.  To date, it has committed $19.3 billion in 144 countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment and care programmes against the three diseases.

Gates Foundation – 60 Minutes Interview

A very interesting interview on 60 minutes with Bill and Melinda Gates highlighting the work and priorities of the Gates Foundation.

Asked what the foundation’s global priorities are, Melinda Gates said, “HIV/AIDS, malaria, mother-and-child deaths, in that order.”

Eradicating malaria: UN sets goal for 2015

African leaders and global health experts rallied at the United Nations today to boost access to life-saving bednets and medicines as part of the fight against malaria, aiming to reach the goal of near-zero deaths by 2015.

“Partnership is absolutely essential to making progress against malaria, and Africa’s heads of State are fully committed to achieving victory against malaria in the next decade,” stated Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda of Tanzania, speaking on behalf of President Jakaya Kikwete – the current chair of ALMA. “We owe our children nothing less.”

A UN Headquarters event on “Bridging the Malaria Gap” brought together members of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) – a coalition of 35 heads of State committed to working together to end malaria in Africa, where the disease claims more than 850,000 lives each year – as well as prominent figures in the fields of global health and development.

The Secretary-General has set the goal of providing life-saving malaria control interventions to the 700 million people at risk of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2010.  African leaders announced several efforts to help achieve this goal, including eliminating taxes and tariffs on bednets, medicines and other life-saving products; banning artemisinin monotherapies that increase disease resistance; and enhancing Africa’s capacity to produce safe and effective anti-malaria products.

Providing bednets to everyone living in malaria-endemic countries by the end of this year has been deemed the most effective way to reach the goal of zero or near-zero deaths by 2015 and ending a scourge that results in an estimated 1 million deaths worldwide every year.

WHO reports progress in fight against drug-resistant malaria

Efforts to eliminate a drug-resistant strain of malaria near the Cambodian-Thai border have shown signs of success, according to the World Health Organization and local health officials. (reported by AFP)

The WHO warned early last year that the emergence of parasites resistant to artemisinin along the Cambodia-Thai border could “seriously undermine” efforts to bring the disease under control.

But initial results from the screening of 2,782 villagers in Cambodia’s Pailin province found only two cases of falciparum malaria, the deadliest type of the disease and the one in which resistance to artemisinin has emerged.

A malaria control project launched last year, has distributed more than half a million mosquito nets and trained and equipped more than 3,000 village malaria workers in diagnosis and treatment on both sides of the border.

The director of Cambodia’s National Centre for Malaria Control, said the results suggested the efforts are “significantly reducing the cases of malaria and could ultimately eliminate the resistant parasites from the area.”

New artemisinin-based medication has been largely credited in recent years for increasing recovery rates from the mosquito-transmitted disease that kills one million people a year, mostly in Africa.

Customs groups commit to fight counterfeit drug industry

Counterfeit drugs have become a $200-billion-a-year industry and the 176-nation World Customs Organisation (WCO) will sign a declaration later this month to fight the scourge, an official said on Thursday (Source:  Reuters).

Fake or substandard versions of medicines are often hidden in cargoes sent on circuitous routes to mask their country of origin. “We have more fakes than real drugs in the market,” said Christophe Zimmermann, the WCO’s anti-counterfeiting and piracy coordinator. “In 2007-2008 alone, it rose 596 percent.”

The World Trade Organisation says fake anti-malaria drugs kill 100,000 Africans a year and the black market deprives governments of 2.5-5 percent of their revenue.

The Brussels-based WCO represents customs operations globally and has joined with former French president’s Jacques Chirac’s foundation to raise awareness at upper echelons to curtail the illicit industry.

Fake medicines often contain the wrong or toxic ingredients and pose a growing health threat worldwide, especially in poor countries where drugs are sold to treat conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.

“If these subjects are not dealt with and strong action not taken, they will be a source of conflict,” said Catherine Joubert, director general of the Fondation Chirac, adding that so far 30 groups had signed the declaration.

In a sign Europe is taking the issue seriously too, justice ministers on the Council of Europe are set to ratify a convention on counterfeit medicines in Istanbul this November.

Malaria outbreak in Venezuela

Statistics published this week by Venezuela’s Health Ministry show that malaria cases have doubled so far this year, particularly in Bolivar, where officials say there is an epidemic.  21,601 cases of malaria have been reported nationwide so far this year, up from 10,758 during the same period last year.

Public health officials attribute the rise in malaria in part to a government-led operation this year in which soldiers have evicted thousands of miners from illegal strip-mines.  That has led to a movement of displaced miners to other towns, and they have carried the disease with them and helped it spread into areas that didn’t used to have much malaria.

For more details, read the report published by the Miami Herald.