Word: malariae
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Just a few years ago, this was Mission Impossible; today it is tantalizingly within our reach. It is no longer crazy to suggest that we can eliminate tuberculosis and malaria from the planet. It is no longer unthinkable to imagine a world without AIDS or extreme poverty. And this isn't hope talking, or faith. This is hard science pointing us toward a better, healthier world...
...past year we learned that for the first time there's a vaccine that offers real, if partial, protection against malaria. No more death by mosquito bite is a goal that is within sight. Two new vaccines have been developed for rotavirus, the main cause of diarrheal disease. Today nearly a million people with HIV in poor countries are on lifesaving antiretroviral drugs--more than double the total just 18 months...
Momentum is building, but disease is still way out in front. The numbers are so big that they can numb us into indifference: 5,000 people dying every day from tuberculosis, 1 million dying every year from malaria. Behind each of these statistics is someone's daughter, someone's son, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother...
Alonso's trial involves 2,000 children ages 1 to 4 taking a vaccine originally developed by GlaxoSmithKline. The vaccine reduced the risk of clinical (symptomatic) malaria 30%, new infections 45% and new episodes of severe, life-threatening malaria in those already infected an average of 58%. In the children less than 2 years old, it cut the risk of severe malaria 77%. The next step, says Alonso, is to test the vaccine in children younger than a year old. Then trials will be expanded into other countries. "If all goes well," he says, "we should have an approved vaccine...
That would be deeply satisfying to Alonso, 46, who, with his wife Clara, has been fighting malaria for nearly 20 years. "When you arrive as a young doctor in Africa," he says, "and you walk into a hospital, you're basically confronted with this massive disease that causes so much suffering and death. It is impossible not to become passionate about fighting it." Says the father of three: "Those children in the hospital are looking at us, telling us to put more effort, more resources, more brains, more research, to come out with solutions. They are a constant reminder...