US team using mosquitoes for malaria vaccine

Scientists and a US drug manufacturer have teamed up to open the first factory producing a malaria vaccine that uses a weakened form of the malaria parasite to protect against the disease.

Sanaria Inc and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative have announced they are working together to deliver the vaccine which is created by feeding mosquitoes human blood infected with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The mosquitoes are then weakened by radiation before the parasite is harvested from their salivary glands to be used in a 'whole parasite' vaccine.

In a statement, Dr Stephen L Hoffman, Sanaria's founder and chief executive, said: "The opening of this facility is an important step in the process to develop a whole-parasite malaria vaccine."

However, Dr Hoffman also told AHN that there was still a long way to go before any mass production and distribution of the vaccine.

While there are four types of malaria, the World Health Organization states that the Plasmodium falciparum strain is by far the most deadly form of the disease.

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