The First-Ever vaccine
The first malaria vaccine candidate to reach phase-3 of clinical testing was found to partially protect children
against the disease up to four years after vaccination and may be available by as early as October this year, scientists reported. Names Related To Death
The results suggest that the vaccine candidate RTS, S/AS01 could prevent a substantial number of cases of clinical malaria, especially in areas of high transmission.
“The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will assess the quality, safety, and efficacy of the vaccine based on these final data
corresponding author Brian Greenwood, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in Britain.
“If the EMA gives a favorable opinion, WHO (World Health Organization) could recommend the use of RTS, S/AS01 as early as October this year.
If licensed, RTS, S/AS01 would be the first licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease,” Greenwood added.
The findings revealed that vaccine efficacy against clinical and severe malaria was better in children than in young infants, but waned over time in both groups.
However, protection was prolonged by a booster dose,
increasing the average number of cases prevented in both children and young infants.
“Despite the falling efficacy over time, there is still a clear benefit from RTS, S/AS01,” Greenwood said.
“Given that there were an estimated 198 million malaria cases in 2013,
The phase-3 randomized trial enrolled 15,459 young infants (aged six to 12 weeks at first vaccination) and children (five to 17 months at first vaccination)
from 11 sites across seven sub-Saharan African countries (Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and the United Republic of Tanzania) with varying levels of malaria transmission.
In 2014, initial phase-3 results at 18 months showed vaccine efficacy of about 46 percent against clinical malaria in children and around 27 percent among young infants.
There is currently no licensed vaccine against malaria anywhere in the world.
The findings were published in the journal The Lancet.
The European Medicines Agency gave a positive scientific opinion after assessing its safety and effectiveness.
This essentially is the ‘green light’ for the Mosquirix jab, developed by GlaxoSmithKline.
The World Health Organization will consider later this year whether to recommend it for children, among whom trials have yielded mixed results.
Is It Better to Run Faster Or Farther? I look at a good run.
Standing at 5’5? my height would have never allowed
me to be a sprinter, and running long distances competitively was as satisfying as it was frustrating.
At my peak, I could run a 5-minute mile without barely even breaking a sweat.
Endorphins are chemicals that act a lot like their medically engineered counterpart, morphine. Runners have credited them for their feel-good effects for decades,
The scientists found that during two-hour-long runs,
subjects’ pre-frontal and limbic regions (which light up in response to emotions like love) spewed out endorphins.
The greater the endorphin surge in these brain areas, the more euphoric the runners reported feeling.
Sadly, my competitive running career ended abruptly when I blacked out during the Junior Olympic Finals.
It was tragic, disheartening, and made me shy away from running for about five years.
At this point, I was ill and out of shape,
and I turned to run like an old friend that I desperately needed to help pull me out of my rut.
It worked, I haven’t been able to get back to the five-minute miles of my youth, but I fell in love with long 10K runs and haven’t looked back since.
Yesterday during my 7 miles run at a 12-minute pace,
I wondered if my running was simply too slow. After all, my 14-year-old self would laugh at my 12-minute mile and then disown me forever.
This all led me to wonder, is it better to run faster as I did in my youth, or further, as I’ve learned to love doing?
If you’re a sprinter focusing on increasing speed, this is for you!
These short bursts of energy and speed train your muscles to gain strength in exactly the right places needed for sprint runs.
Speed: This is an obvious one, focusing on short runs will undoubtedly make you faster.
If you’re only running 5K’s you should see a significant drop in time within your first three months of training.
Cons:
Injury: Speed training and fast running have a much higher injury risk than running slower, for longer.
Rigidness: If you are a short-distance runner and try to run for longer, the transition is much more strenuous than the other way around.
Running Further
Pros:
Strength: Adding more miles helps your body build up some strength and injury resistance for future speed training.
Therefore no matter what, if you focus on increasing the length of your run, speed should naturally follow.
Endurance: One of my favorite things about being a long-distance runner is the incredible endurance that you get from consistent training.
This endurance and vitality will undoubtedly carry out into other aspects of your life.
Calorie Burn: Running for an hour or longer at a moderate pace (10-12) minutes,
gives you a significantly higher calorie burn count than a 30 minute run at a faster pace.
Flexibility: As pointed out above, being a long-distance runner allows you to be more flexible during your runs.
If you’re a marathon runner a 10K will seem like a breeze and a 5K like a walk in the park.
Shoes wear out about every 300-400 miles and wearing them for longer can put you at higher risk for injury. So head to a running specialty shop. They will record your gait and be able to recommend shoes that are best for you.
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