<
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/malaria-vaccine-rollout-shines-light-value-renewable-power-2024-04-02/>
"April 2 - Over the course of this year, in cities, towns and villages across
the tropical belt that cuts through sub-Saharan Africa, medics will begin
administering doses of vaccines against malaria to millions of people. This
promises to be one of the greatest public health efforts ever undertaken,
helping to mitigate the vast toll that the mosquito-borne disease has claimed
for millennia.
Malaria causes 608,000 deaths each year, 95% of them in Africa. One of the two
approved vaccines, labelled RTS,S, has been piloted on a large scale in Ghana,
Kenya and Malawi, and Cameroon will be the first of 12 African countries that
will begin administering doses this year.
An evaluation of the pilot found a total reduction in child mortality of 13% in
areas where RTS,S was administered, compared with similar areas where it was
not available. The second vaccine, R21, was approved last December and is
expected to prevent around 75% of malaria episodes when given seasonally in
high-risk areas.
The life-saving rollout of vaccines will be made possible by a humble piece of
equipment: the fridge. Like most vaccines, the new malaria vaccines need to be
kept constantly at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. Exposing the vaccines to
higher or lower temperatures can render large batches useless.
The vaccine “cold chain” sees vaccines being stored and distributed through
several layers, beginning with a national-level storage centre and cascading
down to local facilities. In remote areas, where an electricity grid network is
either absent or unreliable, the need for reliable refrigeration has long
caused headaches, but huge progress has been made in recent years in developing
fridges that use solar panels as a power source. Thousands of such devices are
now in position across sub-Saharan Africa, ready to serve as the workhorse of
the malaria vaccine rollout."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-ebola-vaccines-crime-brazil-overfishing-us/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
