#Malaria Vaccines

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - May 22-28

Like these weekly compilations? Support me on Ko-fi or $Kaybarr1735! Also, if you tip me on Ko-fi or CashApp (and give me some way to contact you if it doesn’t automatically), at the end of the month I'll send you a link to all of the articles I found but didn't use each week - almost double the content!

1. Scientists Invent Healthier More Sustainable Chocolate

“The new chocolate recipe from researchers at ETH Zurich uses more materials from the cocoa pod that are usually discarded, including more of the pulp as well as the inner lining of the husk, known as the endocarp. […] The resulting chocolate also [was “deliciously sweet” and] had 20% more fibre and 30 percent less saturated fat than average European dark chocolate[, and] it could enable cocoa farmers [to] earn more from their crops.”

2. Vermont Is Coming for Big Oil, Making It Pay for Decades of Climate Pollution

“Legislators in Montpelier are on the brink of enacting the "Climate Superfund Act," modeled after the federal Superfund law, that seeks to make oil, gas and coal companies pay for damages linked to historical greenhouse gas emissions. […] Companies would be held liable for the costs associated with […] floods and heat waves, along with losses to biodiversity, safety, economic development and anything else the treasurer deems reasonable[, that were caused by their emissions].”

3. Important bird habitat now protected in the Rocky Mountain Trench

“Grassland-reliant species in the Rocky Mountain Trench now have more protected habitat thanks to a new [270-hectare] conservation area near Cranbrook. […] About one-third of the Skookumchuck Prairie Conservation Area is forested[…,] Most of the site is a dry grassland[…, and] Three hectares of wetlands add to the landscape diversity and offer crucial benefits to wildlife and water systems in the area. This conservation gem also provides habitat for endangered American badger and excellent winter range for elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer.”

4. Lemur Week marked by 70th breeding success

“A wildlife park has celebrated its 70th lemur breeding success ahead of a week raising money to help save the endangered primates. […] The park's open-air Madagascar exhibit is home to 31 free-roaming lemurs and was officially opened in 2008. […] Females are only sexually receptive for just one or two days a year, leaving a small window of opportunity for males to father offspring. […] The two playful siblings, one female and one male, were born to father Bernard and mother Hira.”

5. Innovative material for sustainable building

“Researchers introduce a polymer-based material with unique properties. This material allows sunlight to enter, maintains a more comfortable indoor climate without additional energy, and cleans itself like a lotus leaf. The new development could replace glass components in walls and roofs in the future.”

6. Isle of Wight eagles don't pose threat to lambs as feared

“While there had previously been fears that the eagles would feed on livestock, such as lambs, the project has found no evidence of this. [… “W]hite-tailed eagles effectively steal meals from other predatory birds[, which is] a really important ecological role that had been lost within the landscape and is being restored.” [… The birds’] population was boosted by a chick last year – the first time the species has bred in England in 240 years.”

7. Breakthrough discovery uses engineered surfaces to shed heat

“Cheng's team has found a way to lower the starting point of the [Leidenfrost] effect by producing a surface covered with micropillars. […] The discovery has great potential in heat transfer applications such as the cooling of industrial machines and surface fouling cleaning for heat exchangers. It also could help prevent damage and even disaster to nuclear machinery.”

8. New malaria vaccine delivered for the first time

“A total of 43,000 doses arrived by air today from UNICEF, and another 120,000 are scheduled to show up in the coming days. […] They're the first vaccines designed to work against a human parasite. […] Across four African countries, these trials showed a 75% reduction in malaria cases in the year following vaccination of young children. […] The Serum Institute of India, who will be manufacturing the new vaccine, says a hundred million doses will likely be available to countries by the middle of next year.”

9. Urban gardening may improve human health: Microbial exposure boosts immune system

“"One month of urban indoor gardening boosted the diversity of bacteria on the skin of the subjects and was associated with higher levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines in the blood. The group studied used a growing medium with high microbial diversity emulating the forest soil," [… whereas] the control group used a microbially poor peat-based medium. [… N]o changes in the blood or the skin microbiota were seen. […] “This is the first time we can demonstrate that meaningful and natural human activity can increase the diversity of the microbiota of healthy adults and, at the same time, contribute to the regulation of the immune system."”

10. Cities Are Switching to Electric Vehicles Faster Than Individuals

“[M]ost large cities have adopted some kind of climate goal, and some of them are buying EVs for their municipal fleets at a faster rate than the general public. And that progress could speed up as more EVs enter the market and as cities get educated about grant funding and tax incentives that were passed over the last four years.”

May 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[mindblowingscience]

Mosquitoes are normally associated with spreading malaria rather than preventing it, but in a new study scientists have used the insects to administer a promising new vaccine that could offer much better protection against the disease than current options. It's the second generation of this particular vaccine type, and the improvement shown in this study is significant: eight out of nine young adults given the new vaccine were protected against malaria, compared with one out of eight given the existing one.

Continue Reading.

[hylianengineer]

If you're despairing about the state of the world right now (aren't we all?), maybe go check out this article about malaria vaccines. 'Cause that's kind of a big fucking deal.

Malaria is like, stupidly nasty and deadly. Humanity's been trying to make a vaccine against it for decades and now we have two! And already, vaccination campaigns in Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya have caused child mortality from all causes to drop by 13%. That's huge. That's fucking insane. That's not a drop in childhood malaria deaths, that a drop in deaths from fucking anything, because malaria was such a huge portion of child fatalities. Which are now being prevented! The entire world should be celebrating this! Maybe go read about it in between doomscrolling about the elections.

[plutusiasdelhi]

MALARIA VACCINE

The Government of India has set a target to eliminate malaria in India by 2027.

It has developed a National Framework for Malaria Elimination (2016-2030) and a National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination for five years.

India shifted its focus from malaria control to elimination.

A roadmap was established to eliminate malaria in 571 out of India’s total 678 districts by 2022. 

The Malaria Elimination Research Alliance-India (MERA-India) was formed under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The subject of "Malaria Vaccine" is covered in this article's coverage of "Daily Current Affairs". The Science and Technology segment of the UPSC CSE test has applicability for this topic. Rishabh has researched and written the article. Additionally, our faculty has reviewed this article. Click the “Malaria Vaccine” link to see the story's original version.

Plutus IAS has received praise for its continued success in offering top-notch and reasonably priced IAS coaching in Karol Bagh Delhi. Our students' everlasting gratitude proves our dedication to developing the next generation of Indian bureaucrats and administrators.

The importance of everyday current affairs cannot be overstated if you wish to succeed in competitive tests like Civil Services. On its website, Plutus IAS includes a separate section for current affairs.

[tributary]

🚫🦟

!

[chronal-anomaly]

Thinking about Lena being sick as a dog when they were doing her pre slipstream vaccination batteries

[chronicillnesscaneffoffplease]

Advantages to being in the tropics:

My joints are pretty happy with the humidity- yay less pain on the daily!

My nails are growing ridiculously fast I feel.

Dry skin issues (nose, ear, hands) have cleared up. Yay moisture!

I’ve been pretty lucky re migraines so far.

Food has also been working out okay. Which is good. More meat than I usually eat, but I’m doing okay. Lot of soft fruit which is divine.

Disadvantages:

You know you drink a lot of water. But when all you can drink is bottled water you get a pretty ah, visual representation of how much you’re really drink by the waste you leave behind. It’s a looooot of water bottles. We keep leaving these little “water bottle graveyards” in our room.

It’s hot. Humid. My pots has been a little fussy, and I’ve upped my am meds to give me a bit of a better chance. Get a bit woozier than normal, but not having as bad a time as I thought.

Sweating like a pig with ASF (African swine fever). About as pink as one, too.

Swollen legs most days with blood/fluid pooling. Bit irritating. I do have compression socks I should be wearing,,,, but hooooootttttt.

Sunburn (my own fault). Needed to remember that being on photosensitising meds means to cover up more, despite sunscreen, even if the singlet feels cooler. Between covering up, umbrella, and spf 50 I’ve not had a repeat incident.

A few mozzie and bug bites, but really not that bad.

On the whole I’m having a great time. Yes it’s a little tricky and yes it’s a bit uncomfy but it’s so much fun and I’m learning a lot.

[follow-up-news]

South Sudan got its first batch of a new malaria vaccine on Friday from the U.N. health agency, an important step in efforts to battle a disease that is the biggest killer of children in this African country. The more than 645,000 doses of the R21 malaria vaccine received will be distributed across 28 counties with the highest malaria burden. In 2022, South Sudan had an estimated 2.8 million cases and 6,680 deaths from malaria. It has one of the region’s highest rates of malaria incidence, with an estimated 7,630 cases and 18 people dying of the disease every day, according to the World Health Organization. South Sudan’s health minister, Yolanda Awel Deng, said the new vaccine, alongside other preventive measures such as insecticide-treated bed nets and timely access to medical care, will be instrumental in a push to eliminate malaria.

[melyzard]

[a-room-of-my-own]

So I came back from Africa and I still have to take malaria meds for a week and they make me super nauseous 🤢

[tobrodachi]

A’ight, so, as a self-proclaimed expert on the field of epidemiology for infectious and tropical diseases (since I don’t have a title that validates me just yet, it’s a work in progress lmao), this is the skinny of what’s happening with Rabies, take it with a grain of salt since I’m still compiling information and shitposting to organize my thoughts via shouting to the abyss:

1. 4 cases of supposed rabies (confirmatory laboratory pending, it’s new years, and of course the bureaucrats are having a field day). 3 in Oaxaca, southern Mexico; 1 in Nayarit, western mexico. The Nayarit and 1 of the Oaxacan cases are in grave state, 1 death, and the last one without showing any symptoms whatsoever because she’s just built different (actually, just got bit in the hand instead of the head, which is important because! This virus travels through neurons! And it only shows symptoms when it reaches the brain! As if that zombie shit wasn’t scary enough already).

2. The culprit for the Oaxacan cases was a bat that broke into a home. Unknown origin. Vampire bats (AKA Round Motherfucker Supreme) apparently tend to live further up north. However. It also fucking migrates and crashes into other bat colonies like that one uncomfortable cousin. So we still know absolutely jackshit about that.

3. The cases were in this one village, Palo de Lima, located quite literally in the middle of nowhere (or as in this case, Southern Sierra Madre), and that I looked up via geographical and topographical analysis. I found out that they’re so far into the mountains, their roads are made of dirt, and it takes between 4 and 5 hours for any kind of transportation to reach the closest settlement with a working hospital.

4. Bruh.

5. The Nayarit case was a totally unrelated case that occurred a few days before because this one lady let her cat out, bit her, and then died 3 days later. And now her health’s deteriorating, and they sent some samples to the center of the country so that they can identify the presence of Lyssavirus.

6. BRUH.

Should we worry about an outbreak? Probably not, although if the case is confirmed to the wildlife, nothing much can be done about it without altering the ecosystems surrounding them. However, this shit does absolutely show that hey, maybe our government needs to invest more in civil engineering to reach these far-off places faster.

TL;DR: Can we please get a less eventful year? kthxbai

[paapango]

It depends where they go. If they arrived in my city, where people bought nooses to parliament to protest Covid vaccination, they'd be deeply disappointed.

But, if they went to Malawi or anywhere else in Africa the malaria vaccine pilot is being rolled out, they'd find parents travelling miles with their infants to get them protected. I could see Togo and Balto walking happily alongside a parent with their baby on their back on their way to a clinic.

Show some respect, people.

[tracknews1]

Dr. Gloria Diri, Prof. Brisibe, WHO, Others Introduces Malaria Vaccines To Bayelsans

**flags-off vaccination to children across Bayelsa The Commissioner, Ministry of Health Bayelsa State, Prof. Seiyefa Brisibe and World Health Organization(WHO) in collaboration with Bayelsa State Primary Health Care Board(BYSPHCB) in accelerating the fight against vaccine preventable diseases flagged off Malaria Vaccine Introduction for children in age 5-11 months yesterday. The Commissioner,…

[scientificinquirer-blog]

DAILY DOSE: Trump selects Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS; Study shows changing sexual behavior trends in France - waiting longer.

TRUMP PICKS ROBERT F KENNEDY JR TO HEAD HHS President-elect Donald Trump has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for spreading conspiracy theories, to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Trump praised Kennedy’s commitment to combating corruption, restoring science-based practices, and tackling the chronic disease epidemic. Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy, has made…

[bhaskarlive]

Nigeria rolls out new malaria vaccine

In a historic step in the fight against the deadly disease that has killed thousands of children under the age of five in Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria has rolled out a new malaria vaccine that will be given free of cost.

Source: bhaskarlive.in

[docmerry]

Health is on the Ballot This November-Global Health

The 2024 US presidential election will have a vast effect on the health and lives of US residents as well as on many people abroad. The two major candidates hold markedly different views and agendas across global health policy issues.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The actions taken by the Trump Administration during the COVID-19 pandemic can most charitably be described as a mixed bag. He advocated unscientific treatments like the antiparasitic medication Ivermectin against the advice of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He held frequent “super spreader” campaign events against the advice of Dr. Tony Fauci, our preeminent infectious disease expert.

Trump announced that the US was withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) in May 2020, based on claims that were false, misleading, and unsubstantiated. The Biden Administration immediately reestablished our membership in WHO in 2021.

On the other hand, the Trump Administration allocated $18 billion to Operation Warp Speed to speed up the development of highly effective COVID-19 vaccines that the FDA authorized within a year. In pharmaceutical terms that is warp speed. Despite a lot of pushback from sceptics, eventually enough people were vaccinated to allow us to come out of lockdown.

Isolation is not Insulation

U.S. foreign assistance makes up less than 1% of our national budget and includes support for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, family planning, neglected tropical diseases, maternal and child health. This funding not only saves lives, it also contributes to global political and economic security and stability. President Trump’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2018 called for reducing foreign assistance for global health down from $8.5 billion to $6.5 billion. That is a 24% reduction in spending.

Biden’s budget request for FY2025 includes $9.8 billion for global health. The administration is negotiating with WHO to form a WHO Pandemic Agreement with 194 member states that would address some of the gaps in the COVID-19 response.

At the United Nations General Assembly (UN) meeting in late September, philanthropist Bill Gates reported that because of advances in nutrition and access to vaccines in low-income countries, deaths of children under five years old have dropped from 10 million down to 5 million per year since the turn of the century. The UN’s goals are to cut that number in half again by 2030.

Global access to vaccines initiative (GAVI)

Now, Gavi is preparing to support countries to recover from lost progress on routine immunization due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gavi is gearing up to deepen efforts to reach all children who have not received any doses of vaccines, introducing new life-saving malaria vaccines, and supports the sustainable growth of vaccine manufacturing in Africa. 

Why build vaccine manufacturing in Africa?

While that might sound like the set up to a why Willie Sutton robbed banks joke, Gavi has good reason to avoid counting on biotech companies like Moderna to supply vaccines.

There’s also a horrific and, frankly, racist narrative that countries in Africa won’t be able to use the vaccine. Now that’s certainly true when you just dump a lot of leftover vaccines. I know one small area in Africa that got seven different vaccines with short expiration dates, no planning, no predictable supply. So yeah, in that situation you’ll have problems. Dr. Tom Freiden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives; Director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the Obama Administration.

Over one billion dollars of taxpayer money and the expertise of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) scientists allowed Moderna to develop it’s COVID-19 vaccine. Then they refused to share that technology with the rest of the world. It’s morally inexcusable, but they have come up with excuses, all of which are untrue.

“We can’t transfer technology because we don’t have enough staff.” They have chosen not to have enough staff.

“We can’t transfer technology because it takes 12-18 months to scale up.” It took one partner of theirs, Lanza, between three and six months, depending on how you count it.

“Africa can’t use the vaccine effectively.” Africans have much less vaccine hesitancy than people in the US and most Western countries. They have a greater ability to run vaccination campaigns because it is something they do regularly.

To be sure, Moderna, which started up in 2010, has always been a bit sleazy. In February 2016, a Nature article criticized Moderna for not publishing any peer-reviewed articles on its technology, unlike most emerging and established biotech companies. In May 2020, Moncef Slaoui resigned from the board of directors of the company to take the lead on “Operation Warp Speed” during the Trump Administration. Slaui continued to hold more than $10 million in stock options while the federal government invested $483 million to assist Moderna in vaccine trials.

Aside from the intuitive pleasure derived from bending the arc of the moral universe by lifting disease burden, there is the added benefit of creating more political and economic stability.

Issues on the Table Right Now

COVID-19 has revealed inequalities in the world's healthcare delivery system. It did not create them. The need is critical and the world is responding.

Polio vaccines are being distributed in Gaza. It is not enough, but it is a start.

Two new malaria vaccines are being rolled out.  As the parasite becomes more resistant to anti-malarial drugs and mosquitos develop resistance to pesticides, prevention is our best hope for saving lives. Currently, our best option for prevention in a timely manner is vaccination.

Gavi also helped introduce new vaccines to fight two of the most deadly diseases for kids: pneumonia and diarrhea. As mentioned previously, two new vaccines to fight malaria that are being used widely in countries like Ghana. Malaria kills more than 600,000 people a year, mostly children in Africa. Gavi is preparing to support over 20 African countries to introduce these ground-breaking vaccines.

The US took a big step in helping put this plan into action. At the June 2024 Gavi pre-replenishment meeting in Paris, the U.S. pledged at least $1.58 billion for Gavi over the next five years. This is an excellent way to ensure the project has funding stability. That is critical to achieve goals beyond an immediate crisis.

A bipartisan Gavi resolution (H.Res.1286 / S.Res.684) provides a multi-year commitment to Gavi to ensure access to lifesaving vaccines and work towards ending preventable child and maternal deaths.

My Take:

Given that the Trump Administration withdrew from WHO early in the COVID pandemic when it became clear that it was not going to be "gone by Easter". Neither the WHO Pandemic Agreement nor Gavi will receive robust funding in a second Trump term.

Global health is not a zero-sum game. The return on investment in life expectancy, productivity, and stability with adequate funding on global health is enormous. In many ways Health is on the Ballot this November.