Cubans Court Controversy in Malaria Battle

Source: FT Online

Half a century after Cuba despatched military advisers to Africa to spread communism during the cold war, it is sending less ideological specialists to attack a very different foe.

Dozens of salesmen and technical experts from the Havana-based company Labiofam have made inroads across the continent with a product to fight malaria, capitalising on high-level diplomatic connections forged during the early years of African independence. But health specialists have voiced concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the technology the Cubans are selling.

Experimental Malaria Vaccine Slashes Infection Risk By Half

Source : NPR Health Blog, SHOTS

After decades of disappointment, researchers think they’re finally on track to unleash the first practical vaccine against malaria, one of mankind’s ancient scourges.

In the world’s first large field trial of an experimental malaria vaccine, several thousand young children who got three doses had about 55 percent less risk of getting the disease over a year than those who got a control vaccine against rabies or meningitis.

Dr. Christian Louqc, who’s leading the final-phase clinical trial at 11 sites across Africa, tells Shots that among several thousand children who got “control” vaccines, there were 1,500 cases of malaria — more than one episode per child in the following year. But for every 1,000 children who got the experimental malaria vaccine, there were only 750 cases of malaria.

Stem Cells May Have Cured AIDS Patient

A very unusual blood transplant appears to have cured an American man living in Berlin of infection with the AIDS virus, but doctors say the approach is not practical for wide use. The man, who is in his 40s, had a blood stem cell transplant in 2007 to treat leukemia. His donor not only was a good blood match but also had a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to HIV.