Single vaccine tackles range of parasitic diseases

Abstract

Developing transmission-blocking vaccines is one of the highest priorities of the World Health Organisation’s malaria research programme. This could soon go much further, producing one vaccine capable of preventing transmission of a range of insect-borne parasitic diseases. Researchers at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NAIAD) recently published details of a vaccine target antigen that could be used to disrupt the transmission of malaria, leishmania, filarial diseases and sleeping sickness.