Malaria has been ravaging tropical climates for all these while, yet you never hear of an African effort to find a vaccine. We are the kings of adapting to our environment, no matter how messed up it is.

Since we aren’t interested, others are attempting to find one for us. Not that they’re being altruistic or anything, but you can make money even when carrying out a good act.

A newly approved malaria vaccine has the potential to cut malarial deaths, one of the greatest causes of death in Africa, by a significant margin.

Developed by GlaxoSmithKline, the European Medicines Agency has run the thumb over the new vaccine and gave it a positive review, which indicates its safe enough to start applying to malaria ravaged countries. However, the World Health Organisation would have the final word on whether the vaccine is applied or not.

‘Mosquirix Jab’, although not proven 100% effective, would be a big help in combating malaria.

According to the BBC:

“It has been designed specifically to combat malaria infection in children in Africa and will not be licensed for travellers.

Earlier this year, final results of a clinical trial in seven African countries yielded mixed results.

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.

But the effectiveness of the vaccine waned over time, making the booster shot essential.

Without a booster the vaccine did not cut the rate of severe malaria over the trial period.

Mosquirix, otherwise known as the RTS,S vaccine, is the first against a parasitic infection in humans.

Malaria kills around 584,000 people a year worldwide, most of them children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.”