Malaria is very well-known disease, part of the vector-borne diseases. It has been discovered that the cause of malaria are protozoan parasites. Malaria is mostly common in tropical and sub-tropical areas, usually part of the Americas, Asia and Africa. There are 515 million reported cases of malaria yearly, and between one and three million people die every year of malaria. Most of the victims of the disease are young children from sub-Saharan Africa, where 90% of malaria deaths occur. Usually, malaria is associated with poverty. The disease is one of the most major hindrances of sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development.

Malaria is most commonly contracted following a bite from a female Anopheles mosquito. They are the only mosquitoes that can transmit malaria, under the condition that they had been previously infected themselves through a so-called “blood meal” from another infected person. Symptoms of malaria include light headedness, shortness of breath, tachycardia, as well as other general symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, flu-like illness, and, in severe cases, coma and death.

Recently, scientists have been working on developing a vaccine against this parasitic disease. Careful calculations have shown that the distribution of such a vaccine may cut malaria-caused illnesses by more than half, as proven by the field trials. The vaccine has also been proven to be safe to administer with other child inoculations. This vaccine, which is about to enter its third and final stage of clinical trials at the beginning of 2009, might very possibly become the first vaccine that can protect children against malaria.

The vaccine, which was developed by GlaxoSmithKline, may be available in 2012.