Question: How can people protect themselves against malaria without the vaccine, or is there even a way? Is there any way to build up your immune system instead?
Hi there magic! Great question.. I like the way you think!
The best way for people to protect themselves against malaria is not to get bitten by mosquitoes! The mosquitoes that spread malaria mainly bite at night, so sleeping under a bednet is the best way to stop yourself getting infected. And wearing strong insect repellent too.
The immune system takes a long time to build up resistance to malaria. If you get malaria once, you can still get it again, and in countries where there is lots of malaria, some kids get it 5 or 6 times a year. Having malaria all the time isn’t good for babies development, and it keeps kids out of school and also increases the chance that they might get seriously ill, or die.
So the immune system can build up protection against malaria, but it takes years and year and you have to get malaria lots of times. This is why I want to make a vaccine, so we can protect young babies early in life and stop them getting malaria!
Hi there magic! Great question.. I like the way you think!
The best way for people to protect themselves against malaria is not to get bitten by mosquitoes! The mosquitoes that spread malaria mainly bite at night, so sleeping under a bednet is the best way to stop yourself getting infected. And wearing strong insect repellent too.
The immune system takes a long time to build up resistance to malaria. If you get malaria once, you can still get it again, and in countries where there is lots of malaria, some kids get it 5 or 6 times a year. Having malaria all the time isn’t good for babies development, and it keeps kids out of school and also increases the chance that they might get seriously ill, or die.
So the immune system can build up protection against malaria, but it takes years and year and you have to get malaria lots of times. This is why I want to make a vaccine, so we can protect young babies early in life and stop them getting malaria!
0