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The decades-long quest to make the first malaria vaccine

August 01, 2024
August 1, 2024
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Morning Rounds Writer and Podcast Producer
Okay, I know it's unoriginal to express awe at the speed at which time passes, but like ... how is it already August? Okay, instead I will recall Louise Glück's "Matins." ("You want to know how I spend my time?") ("And soon the summer is ending, already / the leaves turning, always the sick trees / going first") (Bye!!)

infectious disease

How the world got its first malaria vaccine

ILLUSTRATION: CHRISTINE KAO/STAT; PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES, AP, GSK, CDC, NIAID

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria — the vast majority of whom are kids under the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa. For decades, pharmaceutical companies and researchers have struggled to create a vaccine that could protect people from the wiley virus. This year, finally, they succeeded. Twice.

The vaccines aren't perfect, but they're the first to target any human parasite, representing a feat of both scientific grit and fundraising ingenuity.

Read the story of the 40-year quest for a vaccine from STAT's Drew Joseph, featuring a Jewish physician-researcher whose family escaped Nazi occupation in Austria, an American named Ripley who gave himself malaria to test his own experimental vaccine, and an Egyptian immigrant who simply showed up at Brooklyn College one day and introduced himself because he didn't know how to apply for doctorate programs. (He got in.) And afterwards, read about the four main takeaways from the epic tale.

LGBTQ+ health

British doctor group will evaluate national report on trans health

The British Medical Association (which represents doctors like the AMA does in the U.S.) will evaluate the Cass Review, an independent report on gender-affirming care for young people in the U.K. that was commissioned by the National Health Service and published earlier this year. Among the Cass Review's major recommendations are a "more cautious" approach around social transition for trans youth and "extreme caution" in providing puberty blockers or hormones to adolescents. 

Members of the BMA's council voted in favor of a motion to "publicly critique" the report after doctors and researchers in multiple countries, including the U.K. and U.S., expressed concern over the report's methodology and how its recommendations could be implemented. The announcement also comes days after a British court cited the review in a decision to uphold the U.K.'s ban on puberty blockers. The BMA called the report's recommendations "unsubstantiated" in its motion and said implementation should be paused until its review is complete toward the end of the year. 

skincare

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A novel sunscreen product)

You may not know it, but if you live in the U.S. like me, your sunscreen is subpar. For more than two decades, people across Europe, Asia, and Canada have been able to buy sunscreens that protect against the full spectrum of ultraviolet rays — including ultraviolet A rays that are known to cause cancer, and which American sunscreens often miss.

Despite the bipartisan promise to improve sun protection that legislators made in 2014's Sunscreen Innovation Act, the FDA has not approved any new sunscreen ingredients since the 1990s. In a First Opinion essay, dermatologist Darrell Rigel argues that the agency needs to do more to help people protect their skin. Read more to learn about how we're missing out. 

politics

Where the leading Harris VP candidates stand on health care

JIM VONDRUSKA/GETTY IMAGES 

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to name her pick for vice president as early as this week. It's an ever-narrowing field of candidates, but there are a few names still in the mix, including Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, Department of Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz.

So who are these guys, and what are their records on health care? STAT's Sarah Owermohle has the breakdown on how the candidates stack up on issues like health insurance, drug prices, abortion, and gender-affirming care. (Read the story, but before you do, can you guess who called former President Trump a "bastard" on the "White Dudes for Harris" fundraising and organizing call?) 

cancer corner

What happens to Cancer Moonshot without Biden? Plus: What happens when you vape and smoke?

We've got two bits of cancer news for you today, starting with a story by STAT's Angus Chen on what might happen to President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative once he's out of office. "We stand a very good chance of continuing this momentum against cancer," Karen Knudsen, the CEO of the American Cancer Society, told Angus. "We have to." But could the initiative fade or get rebranded? Read more from Angus on the hope — and the trepidation — that researchers have going into the election. 

Meanwhile, a study published yesterday in the Journal of Oncology Research and Therapy found that people who both vape and smoke are four times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who only smoke. It's the first study to provide evidence that smoking and vaping in combination is riskier than smoking alone, the authors wrote. The findings are based on a comparison between almost 5,000 people with lung cancer and 27,000 without in the Columbus, Ohio, area.

aging

Vision loss and high cholesterol are now considered dementia risk factors

Untreated vision loss and higher LDL cholesterol (aka the bad one) have been added as potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia in a report released yesterday by the Lancet Commission. They join a list of 12 other risk factors including lack of education, physical inactivity, social isolation, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, and depression.

It's not necessarily bad news. While there's more to worry about, perhaps, the findings also suggest that there's more people can do to prevent dementia, Gill Livingston, a co-author on the report, said to STAT's Rohan Rajeev. Read more on why these two factors matter.

More around STAT
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What we're reading

  • Florida's RSV season has started, and it's coming soon to the rest of the U.S. Here's a primer, KFF Health News and Tampa Bay Times

  • PBMs aren't opening access to lower-cost biosimilars. Reform is needed now, STAT
  • The cutting edge of CRISPR is in Nigeria, Harvard Public Health
  • From the World Cup to the Olympics, sports medicine is racing to improve how injuries are treated, STAT

Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,

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