Filipino Discovers New Malaria Vaccine

It is very seldom that our local media get hold of news about Filipino scientists' achievements, or even get a recognition from the Government about science discoveries by Filipino scientists and inventors. Mostly, the news are just kept within a few radius from the laboratory, but never gets to the Filipino public to be patronized or marketed.

Carrier of Mass Destruction

So after reading about this latest health discovery by a Filipino from Inquirer Global Nation, I felt the need to blog about this recent achievement of Rhoel Dinglasan - an Entomoligist/Biologist at John Hopkins University Hospital.

The breakthrough of the discovered vaccine prevents the mosquitoes from spreading the malaria virus. Contrary to the current vaccines which allows our immune system to just fight-off the disease, the new vaccine works by stopping the virus on the mosquito itself, thus, preventing the spread and totally blocking the transmission of the virus when the mosquito hops to another meal. The vaccine or antigen is called AnAPN1.

To further understand how the new antigen works, I have posted below some excerpts from the Global Inquirer:

“Traditional vaccines work by introducing a killed or weakened version of a disease into the body, where the immune system spots it and cranks out antibodies against it. Then, if a wild strain of the pathogen comes along later—one that has the power to sicken or kill—the body is ready for it. The new approach is different. Developed by Rhoel Dinglasan, an entomologist and biologist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, it would instead work within the mosquito gut.

You may read more about the full story of this breakthrough from Time Magazine.