Vaccines & Viruses: Regulators approve world's first malaria vaccine

Mosquito defense. After spending $356 million and conducting 30 years of research, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline won approval last week from European safety regulators for the world’s first malaria vaccine. The European Medicines Agency approved the Mosquirix vaccine as safe and effective to use among young children in Africa, where most malaria infections and deaths occur. In 2013, there were an estimated 198 million cases of malaria worldwide, and an estimated 584,000 deaths, mostly in children younger than 5 years old. Glaxo has already produced tens of millions of doses of its vaccine, but because it still needs approval from the World Health Organization and from African nations where the vaccine could be used, Mosquirix is unlikely to roll out until at least 2016. Glaxo produced the vaccine with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The pharmaceutical giant says it will charge a 5 percent margin above manufacturing cost for the vaccine, and will reinvest the money into vaccine research.

The vaccine is a breakthrough but doesn’t appear to be a cure-all for malaria, which is spread through the bites of mosquitoes infected by Plasmodium parasites. Human trials of Mosquirix showed it prevented only about half of malaria cases among children ages 5-17 months, and only about a quarter of cases among babies ages 6-12 weeks. Bed nets offer better protection. But with malaria killing one child every minute in Africa (according to the World Health Organization), partial immunity seems better than none at all. “The reality is that the bed net is only effective if you have used it,” Glaxo executive Moncef Slaoui told The Wall Street Journal. “With vaccines, once immunized, your protection is with you day and night.”

HPV vaccines scrutinized. The European Medicines Agency this month also began an investigation into two possible, rare side effects of HPV vaccines: “complex regional pain syndrome” and “postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.” The latter condition results in dizzy spells when a person is standing. It’s not yet clear whether the vaccines against cancer-causing human papillomavirus, such as Gardasil, available in Europe since 2006, can cause either condition.

Victory over MERS (maybe). South Korea’s outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome appears to be over. The country has seen no new cases in three weeks and released the last MERS patient from isolation on Monday.

Ticks get around. The last time I walked next to a brush field, I left with two ticks on my legs. Thanks to these pests, Lyme disease has slowly spread in the northern and northeastern United States: Researchers say the tick-borne bacterial infection is present in four times as many U.S. counties today as in 1993. This map illustrates which ones. A vaccine against Lyme disease exists, but the manufacturer stopped making it due to lack of demand.

Eight with one shot. Wouldn’t it be great never to get the flu again? Scientists are attempting to create a universal flu vaccine, and in the latest study, one vaccine protected mice against eight different strains of flu.

Chickens, rejoice. Researchers have developed a vaccine that is 100 percent effective at preventing bird flu, in tests. This year’s U.S. bird flu outbreak has resulted in the deaths of 48 million chickens and turkeys.