Developed in Belgium, the first anti-malaria vaccine should save millions of lives.
Which animal is the most dangerous for humans? You think of the bear, the crocodile, the lion… Not at all. The lion kills on average 250 victims each year, while another beast kills no less than a million people! This ferocious animal is an insect: the mosquito. It spreads all kinds of serious diseases: dengue, zika, chikungunya… and malaria. In 2022, according to WHO data, 249 million people contracted this disease, and 608,000 died from it. However, these figures are expected to decline in the coming years. Because after more than a century of research, scientists have finally developed a vaccine against malaria. As told by Arte on Saturday at 11:20 p.m., with the documentary “Malaria, hope at last”.
From polders to the tropics
“Malaria is a preventable and curable disease,” emphasizes the WHO (World Health Organization). “However, in the absence of rapid diagnosis and effective treatment, an uncomplicated case of malaria can progress to a severe form of the disease, which is often fatal if left untreated. » Immunocompromised people, pregnant women and children are the first to be affected. According to UNICEF, a child under the age of 5 dies every minute in the world. According to some researchers, malaria is even the cause of the death of half of the humans who have populated the planet since the beginning. It is in any case one of the oldest diseases in the world. Tutankhamun suffered from it, Hippocrates described it…
Until the beginning of the 20th centurye century, we encountered cases of malaria in our polders. Ditto in the heart of the Camargue, in France. Today, the only cases reported here are those of people who contracted the disease while traveling to the ends of the earth. “Malaria” is now considered a tropical disease. Half of the deaths are concentrated in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, DRC, Niger and Tanzania. To protect themselves, the inhabitants of these regions only have mosquito nets. When they have…
Made in Rixensart
For centuries, malaria was thought to be caused by the fetid air of the marshes. This is where its other name comes from: malaria (bad air). It was not until 1880 that a French doctor from Algeria understood that the disease was of parasitic origin. And 1897 for an English scientist based in India to make the link with the mosquito. Both were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. But for more than a century, despite numerous attempts, researchers failed to develop a vaccine. Until very recently… The Arte documentary, directed by a British woman, follows the team from the University of Oxford. This laboratory had already developed the vaccine against covid with AstraZeneca and in 2023, the WHO validated the vaccine against malaria. But the documentary forgets to specify that the very first anti-malarial vaccine recognized by the WHO in 2022 is… Belgian! His name is Mosquirix. With “rix” like Rixensart. Because it was developed and produced on the Belgian site of the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Rixensart. The search was long and complex, but it was finally successful. Large-scale vaccination campaigns have recently been able to begin. And we start to dream of a world without malaria…
This article appeared in Le Télépro on 5/12/2024
