Hedstrom, Richard C., Doolan, Denise L., Wang, Ruobing, Gardner, Malcolm J., Kumar, Anita, Sedegah, Martha, Gramzinski, Robert A., Sacci, John B., Charoenvit, Yupin, Weiss, Walter R., Margalith, Michal, Norman, Jon A., Hobart, Peter, and Hoffman, Stephen L. (1997) The development of a multivalent DNA vaccine for malaria. Springer Seminars in Immunopathology, 19 (2). pp. 147-159.

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Abstract

According to the latest report from the World Health Organization (December 1996), malaria is still a public health problem in more than 90 countries, inhabited by a total of some 2.4 billion people or 40% of the world's population. Worldwide incidence of the disease is estimated to be 300-500 million clinical cases each year. Mortality due to malaria is estimated to be in the range of 1.5-2.7 million deaths annually. The vast majority of deaths occur among young children in Africa, especially in remote rural areas with poor access to health services. Immunity to malaria seems to occur among residents of malarious areas with increasing age which prevents an even greater number of deaths. However, this type of protection is short-lived and requires frequent exposure to the malaria parasite. The magnitude of the malaria problem is of increasing concern to a broad range of people who do not reside in the endemic areas. During the twentieth century, United States military forces have lost more person days to malaria than to bullets in every operation conducted in a malarious region [4]. The number of civilian travelers to malarious areas continues to grow as more people throughout the world become increasingly mobile. Why does malaria remain such a problem? Some of the main reasons are these: the parasite has become increasingly resistant to antimalarial drugs; the mosquito vectors that transmit the parasites have developed resistance to the commonly used insecticides; infrastructures required to deliver mosquito control and treatment of patients in many developing countries have been inadequate; and, nonimmune populations have migrated to malarious areas as sometimes occurs in refugee situations. The development of new drugs against malaria is an ongoing effort but this race to stay ahead may one day be lost. The continuing search for tools to combt this disease in­cludes efforts to develop a vaccine.

Item ID:	42777
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1863-2300
Funders:	Naval Medical Research and Development Command (NMRDC)
Projects and Grants:	NMRDC Work Unit No. 62787A00101EFX, NMRDC Work Unit No. 63002AA0101HFX
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2016 02:56
FoR Codes:	11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1107 Immunology > 110799 Immunology not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920109 Infectious Diseases @ 100%
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