Can You Vaccinate a Mosquito to Stop Malaria from Spreading?
By Ellen Wilson, August 28, 2015
That’s impossible, but research is underway at the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to develop a vaccine in humans to prevent mosquitoes from getting infected with malaria-causing parasites, thus stopping them from spreading malaria back to humans. The vaccine would transform people from carriers of the malaria parasite to roadblocks. The antibodies produced by a transmission-blocking vaccine would be transmitted to the mosquito when she bites and thereby interrupt the life cycle of the parasite. This prevents it from being “passed back” to humans.
Like all vaccines, for such a concept to work well, an entire community would need to be vaccinated. Over time, progressively fewer people would carry the parasites, resulting in progressively fewer infected mosquitoes co-inhabiting communities, especially if used with other malaria interventions. Eventually, the parasite would be eliminated from the vaccinated community.
Though we’ve made extraordinary progress over the past decade in reducing malaria deaths, the malaria parasite is rapidly becoming resistant to some of our best tools – drugs and insecticide sprays. Another tool to break the cycle of transmission could help tip the balance against malaria, and history tells us that a disease is unlikely to be eradicated without a vaccine.
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