The MalariaWorld Journal

In this GCE project it was aimed to put a gene encoding a pathogen protein into a mosquito chromosome, causing it to express the protein in its saliva and inject it into animals orhumans during the blood-feeding process. It was anticipated that the host would develop antibodies to the recombinant protein. If transgenic mosquitoes whose saliva contained a vaccine protein against a disease are released in an area where the disease is prevalent, people that are bitten daily by these mosquitoes would develop antibodies to the vaccine protein, and ultimately the entire community would be ‘vaccinated’ against the disease. In this situation, mosquitoes would play the role of vaccine deliverers.

This is a review of Bill Jobin's book 'Improving the US Presidential Malaria Initiative'. It is mainly a review of PMI's first campaign in Angola in 2005/6. Jobin was directly involved in organising a large-scale indoor residual spraying campaign in the south of Angola and writes about the intricacies of getting such a campaign off the ground based on poor data, delays, and a myriad of other challenges. To come to a stunning conclusion: there was hardly any malaria in the region that was sprayed and essentially 2.1 million dollars of the first PMI campaign had gone to waste. Jobin adds a list of essential recommendations to improve the outcome of such campaigns in future. A must-read that can be ordered at Amazon.com.

Most donor agencies only procure drugs approved by a Stringent Regulatory Authority or the World Health Organization (WHO) Prequalification Programme in an effort to ensure high quality. This study compares the quality of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) produced by WHO-approved manufacturers with non-approved manufacturers and suggests policy changes to improve quality of donor-procured drugs. The results of this study suggest that ACTs produced by WHO-approved manufacturers perform nearly five times better than those of non-approved manufacturers, but some approved ACTs have too little active pharmaceutical ingredient. The US President’s Malaria Initiative tests every batch of every drug it procures before distribution to recipient countries. Other donors should follow suit to ensure that drugs purchased with taxpayer dollars are of the highest quality.

[The official response to this article from the World Health Organization Prequalification of Medicines Programme was published in December 2012 and is attached below]