Malaria is a common parasitic infection spread by mosquitos. WHO estimate that there were 229 million cases occurring during 2019, with 409,000 deaths of which 274,000 were children under 5 years old. This is both staggering and depressing because malaria is both preventable and treatable… and yet every year over 400,000 people die who shouldn’t. That means more people have died in the last 8 years from malaria than have died in the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
Trillions of pounds have been spent during the Covid-19 pandemic supporting the economies of developed countries and yet only about 3 billion pounds has been spent in total trying to fight malaria. Why the difference? It could be that Covid-19 had the potential to cause more death and disease than malaria, but then why not spend the trillions on the health response rather than the economy? Could it have anything to do with the fact that 94% of cases and deaths from malaria occur in Africa rather than Europe and the USA?
 
Now we all know we should go and get our Covid-19 vaccine but wouldn’t it be great if there was an effective vaccine against malaria too? The WHO want a malaria vaccine that is at least 75% effective by the year 2030. Surely if there was something like that it would be all over the news; all that death and disease prevented. Well there is a promising vaccine… it just seems to have got a bit lost in all the Covid-19 noise… it is being trialled by those clever scientists from Oxford again, but it does have a rubbish name…!

Okay, I’ve been trying to avoid it but maybe it’s time to catch up with the news. No, not local elections, Jersey-France fishing disputes or what colour wallpaper did Boris Johnson use in the Downing Street toilet (or something like that). Let’s have a quick catch up with Covid-19 and try and answer a few questions I have been asked recently.
 
Let’s get to it…