30/04/2019 - Health

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KEY POINTS

·        A vaccine is a far more economic solution in the long-run than drugs, and since it primes the immune system to fight off the pathogen, disease burden falls sharply with the threat of resistance nullified or minimised.

·        A vaccine creates a memory effect in the immune system and generates needed anti-bodies to fight the antti-gen.

·        Vaccine is also more cheaper than drugs with little or no side effects.

Salient features of new vaccine

·        The launch of the first malarial vaccine—RTS,S—in Africa should be a blessing not just India, but most nations with a high malaria burden are either developing or poor African/South Asian nations.

·        Pharma giant GSK that developed RTS,S will donate 10 million doses for the project.

·        RTS,S prompts the immune system to interfere in the first stages of the Plasmodium falciparum (the most lethal as well as the most prevalent malarial parasite species) life-cycle in the human body by preventing its entry into the human host’s liver from the latter’s bloodstream following a mosquito bite.

·        Children in Africa who were part of the phase III trials received four doses of RTS,S, and the vaccine was shown to prevent 4 in 10 cases of malaria.

Impacts

·        Once the pilot project is completed in Africa, WHO will be reviewing the results, and based on the results, the vaccine could likely become part of the anti-malaria protocol.

·        For India, if the vaccine is found effective, the key question then will be the cost to public health, especially if the vaccine is made part of the universal immunisation programme.

·        But, given India aims to eliminate the disease by 2030 and high-burden states like Odisha have shown exceptional commitment, cost shouldn’t weigh too heavy if adoption is considered.

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Can we add points related to malaria in this answer or that might be unnecessary for this question...