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Malaria Vaccine Passes Key Regulatory Hurdle
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports that the European Medicines Agency has approved the world's first malaria vaccine for real-world use. The vaccine is far from perfect, and the World Health Organization still has to make a final decision on it, but it's a key victory for GlaxoSmithKline, who have been developing the vaccine for three decades. "The best protection was among children aged five to 17 months who received three doses of the vaccine a month apart, plus a booster dose at 20 months. In this group, cases of severe malaria were cut by a third over four years." Unfortunately, the boosters are quite necessary for protection, and it doesn't protect young babies from malaria. The disease "kills around 584,000 people a year worldwide, most of them children under five in sub-Saharan Africa."
the bed nets are what aid money or humanitarian groups should be focusing on.
Vaccines work on uneducated people, and they work 24/7. Bed nets do not. People can use bed nets improperly, divert them for other uses (such as fishing nets), or just not use them at all. The bed nets need to be replaced every two years, as they fray, and the pesticide wears off. They offer no protection during most of the day, when people are working, and going about their lives.
Why do you assume the vaccine will cost more than the bed nets? TFA says nothing about cost. Vaccines that do not require refrigeration can often be delivered very cheaply. Oral polio vaccines cost a few cents per dose.