How the world's first malaria vaccine will protect against the parasite

This vaccine has been in development for 30 long years

The new malaria vaccine (RTS.S/ AS01, tentatively brand-named Mosquirix) could be a frontrunner for an early Nobel Prize in medicine. It is a game changer for public health and infant mortality. Here’s why.

What is so special about it?

It’s the very first vaccine offering immunity against a parasite – specifically the plasmodium falciparum parasite, which is the deadliest of the five parasites that cause malaria. Creating a vaccine to protect against a bacteria or a virus is hard enough. But parasites are more complicated organisms. Cultivating them, understanding how natural antigens build up against them and the differences in