Scientists across Africa are celebrating the news that the world’s first vaccine against malaria has been approved by the European Medicines Agency.

The vaccine, named Mosquirix, was given the green light on Friday after more than 30 years of research, detailed in 230,000 pages of data. It now means that the vaccine will be examined by the World Health Organisation and, if approved, could be administered to children across Africa within the next few years.

“It’s massively significant,” said Allan Pamba, vice president for pharmaceuticals in East Africa for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which has spent more than $356 million (£230m) to date on finding a vaccine. GSK expects to invest a further $200 to $250 million until development is completed. In January 2001, GSK and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, with grant monies from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to PATH, entered into a public-private partnership to develop a vaccine. PATH has invested more than $200 million, much of it from the Gateses.

“Malaria has been incredibly difficult to crack. It’s been tremendously frustrating. But we are all immensely proud to have reached this milestone.”

The WHO has said it may give a policy recommendation by the end of the year; African authorities will then take their decisions about how and where they would implement a vaccination programme.

But, given that an estimated 600,000 people die from malaria every year – 90 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa – Dr Pamba said the health ministers he spoke to on a regular basis were eagerly awaiting the arrival of a vaccine.

An important piece of the puzzle
The Company’s clinical studies with the vaccine shows that it can reduce disease incidence among young children by between 27 and 46 percent, but it does not protect completely against malaria, which mainly affects babies and small children in the poorest countries in Africa.

Subsequently, the African authorities decide how they will implement the vaccination program.

Michael Theisen, who researches malaria at the Danish State Serum Institute, calls it great news, since the vaccine will save lives and improve health in Africa.
– It is really a great thing, because we have never had a vaccine before against malaria. It has been studied in very many trials and is proven to have great effect.

Some other natural medications against malaria.
Research to develop antimalarial drugs led to the discovery of artemisinin, which is extracted from Artemisia annua, a herb traditionally used as a fever treatment. While most TCM herbs are boiled at high temperature that can damage the active ingredient in Artemisia annua, one traditional source says that this herb is to be steeped in cold water; knowing this, scientists found that a better extract was obtained by using a low-temperature ether-based extraction method, and by adding detoxification and purification processes, they could create a drug with sufficient active ingredient to be effective.

Licorice Root

Researchers at the Danish University Hospital and Pharmaceutical College have found that Chinese licorice root contains substances that have activity against malaria parasites that has become resistant to a number of means. One of the active substances is a relatively simple aromatic compound licochalcon A.

It is not recommended that you simply fill with liquorice, when traveling in the tropics, as liquorice also contains a substance glycyrrhizin, which causes high blood pressure. Glycyrhizin is an acetal, wherein the OH group in the glycyrrhetinic acid has formed acetal of a carbohydrate.

As for myself as a write i have used the licorice root to chew it and also close friends that used to suffer from Malaria started chewing it, and got rid of the malaria. today i do not chew it anymore, but i have never contracted malaria.

The number of deaths caused by malaria has declined in recent years thanks to the spread of mosquito nets and medication, but an effective vaccine can be an important corner piece of the puzzle.

The vaccine is designed to prevent malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum parasite.
It is the first vaccine which counteracts the effects of a parasite.

The vaccine will prevent the parasite from infect and replicate in the liver, the parasite would then re-enter the blood stream and infect the red blood cells, leading to the disease symptoms.

A really good start

Michael Theisen call it a really good start, but also emphasized that there is still a long way and that the puzzle is far from being completed finished.

– It is a really good start, and then you have to say that here we have for the first time something that works, and so shall it be used in combination with something else. It may be mosquito nets, it can be general economic growth, which we know is good for fighting diseases, says Michael Theisen.

GlaxoSmithKline has promised that the company will not make money on selling Mosquirix. It must be sold at cost price plus five percent to be invested in continued research into malaria.

“Pretty much every health minister I speak to has had malaria,” said Dr Pamba, who was born in Kenya and now works between Nairobi and London. “They all want to know when it will be ready.”

Mosquirix, whose scientific name is “RTS,S” has been designed to prevent malaria caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the first vaccine to be developed which counters the effects of a parasite.

The vaccine is designed to prevent the parasite from infecting, maturing and multiplying in the liver, after which time the parasite would re-enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells, leading to disease symptoms.

The developers carried out a trial program involving more than 16,000 young children, conducted by 13 African research centres in eight African countries – Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

Two groups of children were tested: infants aged from six to 12 weeks, and young children aged five to 17 months.

Data from the trial program demonstrate that over the first 18 months following three doses of RTS,S, malaria cases were reduced by almost half in the older group. With infants, cases dropped by 27 per cent.

Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said: “Today’s scientific opinion represents a further important step towards making available for young children the world’s first malaria vaccine.

“While RTS,S on its own is not the complete answer to malaria, its use alongside those interventions currently available such as bed nets and insecticides, would provide a very meaningful contribution to controlling the impact of malaria on children in those African communities that need it the most.”

Adri Kitshoff aims her gun at the antelope and pulls the trigger. Killed in an instant, the animal collapses to the ground.

The hunter rests her chin on the gun and closes her eyes in a silent prayer of thanks that the animal did not suffer.

Kitshoff, 57, has shot many such animals before but, as she goes to the corpse, her hands begin to tremble.

“If I would ever become blasé when I’ve taken an animal, that day would be my last day hunting,” said Kitshoff, stroking the dead blesbok’s white face and brown coat.

Kitshoff, director of PHASA, the professional hunters association of South Africa, knows that not everyone shares her passion for hunting.

Yet she is determined to prove that hunters in South Africa are an integral part of conservation efforts.

Her argument is a simple one — hunters come to PHASA from all over the world willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to track and kill buffalo, lion and elephants in African countries where trophy hunting is legal. These hunters pay big money in order to hunt.

A 20-day lion hunt, for example, can cost 80,000 euros ($90,000) to 130,000 euros.

Some of the money goes back into the reserves, in what hunters describe as a virtuous cycle that enables people to maintain large tracts of land where animals can roam free.
“If practised in a sustainable manner — that is to say by not killing more animals than nature creates — hunting protects wildlife and the environment,” says Hermann Meyeridricks, the president of PHASA.
“Without sustainable use, there is no incentive to preserve vast natural areas, not for landowners or for the people.”

A SINGLE SHOT

In South Africa, hunting is only allowed on private reserves, not in national parks like the Kruger. In as an example Tanzania, the animals are counted and the old and sick Elephants, Lions, etc. are marked and being alowed to be hunted so as the heards can be renewed and become much stronger, which is good for the wildlife and sorounding nature.
Now the animal killed some things goes to the community, such as the meat and some of the money for it, other part of the money goes to the parks and government to keep up the security against poaching, and more. Therefore hunting can be god, if it is done under control.

On a cool, sunny afternoon in June, Kitshoff spent hours tracking different animals in the Iwamanzi reserve in North West Province.

Her code of ethics dictates that she does not shoot out of the Land Cruiser as it crosses the savannah.

As a result, several potential prey have fled before Kitshoff succeeds in approaching one close enough on foot.

Finally, she spots the perfect animal: an old solitary male, distinguishable by the white circles on his horns indicating his advanced age, and soon it is dead with a single shot.

“Hunters are not violent people who like to kill,” said Meyeridricks.

“Hunting is an experience that brings you closer to nature. You must know how to interpret the bush. You have to immerse yourself to the point of being part of the ecosystem.”

Despite their efforts to explain their side of the argument, hunters are facing more and more pressure.

This year, two major airlines, South African Airways and Emirates Airlines, banned transport of elephant, rhino, lion and tiger trophies.

In March 2015, Australia also outlawed the import of lion trophies.

Such policies make hunters furious.

“Africa doesn’t have the luxury to argue these things from a very isolated European perspective,” said Meyeridricks.

He says that it is not only the animals that need to be taken into account but also the surrounding communities who benefit from the hunting industry.

“For wildlife to manage to survive and to thrive on this continent, African communities need to have some sort of benefit, and the only benefit they can have from wildlife is financial.”

MEAT FOR EATING

According to the South African environment minister, the legal hunting industry generates about 6.2 billion rand ($510 million) a year, which helps a lot in the protection of the environment, and against poaching.

Several of the large environmental organisations, including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), support hunting, as long as the outfits follow legal, sustainable and ethical practises.

Back at Iwamanzi, the blesbok is positioned on its belly, with its legs folded under the body, and its snout resting on the ground.

Taking her place behind the animal, Kitshoff poses for a photo.

Afterwards, the antelope will go to slaughtering facilities on the farm, where its hide and skull will be used for trophies and its meat will be processed ready to be eaten.

It is photos like these that have earned Kitshoff, Hermann and other hunters death threats against them and their children.

It is a hatred that they say is bred out of ignorance that they hope to overcome.

“I have an option, I can go to a grocery store and pick my meat, or I can come and have a wonderful hunting experience,” said Kitshoff.

“Look at animals being taken to abattoirs, and the stress they go through, whereas the animal I’ve taken today didn’t even know I was around, didn’t even know he died.”