U.S. researchers said they have achieved very good results in clinical testing of an experimental vaccine against malaria, world agencies reported.

The disease caused by the parasite each year causing 600,000 deaths, mostly among children in Africa. The vaccine is derived from a number of attenuated parasites Plasmodium fa, an infection spread by female mosquitoes of the genus Anofelesi. It is one hundred percent protection achieved in six out of nine adult volunteers who received the highest dose of it. In these primary tests involved 40 people aged between 20 and 44 years.

"Although we are in the early stages of the development of the vaccine, we are confident that our vaccine will help us to fight malaria," said Stephen Hoffman, executive director of the laboratory "Sanary" in which are held
research. They are funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and other organizations from the U.S., Europe and Africa.

Scientists 30 years trying to develop antimalarial vaccine. But only now have a very safe immunization tool that is injected and can save millions of lives, "said Hoffman.

Although extremely hopeful results, some experts are still skeptical of the small number of subjects on which it was tested the new vaccine.
For this reason, the scientific team will undertake additional clinical trials in Germany, the U.S. and Africa. Those skilled will test and a different frequency of vaccination in order to achieve one hundred percent protection against at least 5 doses of the novel vaccine.

So far, the way to extract parasites from the salivary glands of mosquitoes is quite slow and requires the efforts of 12 to 15 professionals who manage to dissect around 150 insects per hour. Another difficulty is that the vaccine must be stored in liquid nitrogen. Laboratory "Sanary" already collaborates with Harvard University to automate the process.

These laboratory studies have opponents, there is no guarantee that nature will follow the theoretical approach.

While some scholars argue that it should be kept for research purposes genetically manipulated viruses of avian influenza in several laboratories around the world are already conducting similar experiments, reported the German magazine "Focus". Several teams working in parallel with genetically manipulated virus H7N9. Ron Fucino, one of the scientists involved in the experiments confirmed that his colleagues in several places around the world already are testing resistance to drugs.

Other attempts were allegedly in the pipeline, says Fucino who specializes Flu Medical Center "Erasmus" in Rotterdam. They will study the behavior of the virus modified so as to be easily transmitted from person to person. From mid-March in China already has at least 130 people infected with the dangerous strain H7N9.

This week leading experts called in the journal "Nature" to be carried out similar experiments in which the causative agent is modified in vitro so as to be more infectious and resistant to treatment with drugs. They hope that science will overtake both real life and will be prepared to respond to any mutations in the strain of bird flu, which has threatened a number of Asian countries.

Such an approach, however, meeting and much criticism. According to the China Center for combating infectious diseases in natural mutation of a virus can take years. In the laboratory, it happened in an instant. There is no guarantee that the actual mutations will follow artificial scientific model.

According to Ron Fucino however scientific experiments are very useful and are based on actual forecasts. Attempts would make it possible to produce more effective vaccines and scientific teams would predict risks of transmission of the virus from person to person. New form of H7N9 bird flu was confirmed in humans for the first time in March 2013 Health officials believe that spillover occurred from birds to humans. Thousands of birds were killed and live poultry markets were closed. An outcome measure, the number of new infected dropped almost to zero. In April, the WHO issued a warning that in some cases the virus can be passed from person to person. Scientists from China have joined this opinion and wrote in the British Medical Journal, the risk of bird flu is by no means

Pictured in the foreground is the snail. In the background is the child from whence the snail emerged.

The child's name is Paul Franklin. A few weeks back Paul was visiting the beach with his family when he tripped and dashed his right knee against a rock. His parents cleaned and bandaged the injury. A week later Paul fell again while iceskating, and again his parents dressed the wound. A day later the knee had swollen and Paul had developed a limp. He was hurried to a nearby hospital, where doctors prescribed him a course of antibiotics.

What happened next is recounted in greater details at The Orange County Register, but here's the play-by-play summary:

• After a couple days, the would looked like it was getting better. But then it got way, way worse. The wound looked necrotic, and was badly swollen. Doctors advised Paul's parents not to drain the wound by squeezing it. When the wound started looking even nastier than it does at right in the side-by-side, Paul's mom said to hell with doctor's orders and squeezed away. Boom. Out pops a snail.

At first she thought it was a rock. But nope. It was a snail. A live snail that had been wriggling around in her son's knee since... well... the leading theory is that when Paul smacked his knee against a seaside rock, an egg must have been jammed into the flesh and just kind of... incubated. Nobody's really sure how or if that's possible, but according to the OC Register, Paul's mom is now "trying to find a marine biologist" who can tell her as much.

Deadly H7N9 occurs for the first time in March

Chinese scientists have found the most convincing evidence so far that the deadly new strain of bird flu, "jump" from person to person. Experts emphasize, however, that the virus still can not be easily transmitted between humans, BTA reported.

The first scientific analysis of the transmission of the strain H7N9, showed for the first time in China in March this year, is published in the journal "British Medical Journal".
The study analyzed the case of a father and daughter from East China died after infection with H7N9. Experts have not been able to talk to them since they were both in serious condition, but questioned the family members and loved ones
friends. The analysis has shown that it is highly likely that the virus will be transmitted directly from the 60-year-old man, his daughter.

In a commentary accompanying the publication, experts note that "the study does not necessarily mean that H7N9 will be the next culprit an influenza pandemic, but stresses the need for extreme vigilance."
"The threat, which is H7N9, does not over," commented James Radzh and Richard Coker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The authors of this study from the Centre for prevention and control of diseases in Jiangsu province, however, stressed that the new strain has not yet acquired the ability to transmit efficiently from person to person. This means that the risk of the virus in its current form can cause human pandemic is very low.

The new H7N9 strain of bird flu occurs in March in China. According to WHO, the virus has so far infected 133 people in the country and Taiwan, killing 43 of them. Most cases of infection among people who have visited markets for live birds or had close contact with live birds between seven and 10 days to get sick.

The study, published in the journal "British Medical Journal" analyzed "family" case of two patients - a father and daughter from East China. 60-year-old man regularly visited the market for live poultry and got sick between five and six days after the last contact with birds. He was admitted to hospital on March 11. Following the deterioration of symptoms the patient was transferred to the intensive ward on March 15. He died of multiple organ failure on May 4.

The second patient - his healthy 32-year-old daughter, not having visited markets for poultry, but has been in direct contact with his father, caring for him in the hospital before his transfer to the ICU. The woman developed symptoms of infection
six days after the last contact with his father. Admitted to the hospital on March 24, moved in ICU on March 28 and died of multiple organ failure on April 24.

Strains of the virus isolated from samples of both patients were "almost genetically identical" - convincing evidence that H7N9 has passed directly from father to daughter.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of a possible transmission of the new virus from person to person, accompanied by detailed epidemiological, clinical and virological data," wrote the authors of the study published in the journal "British Medical Journal".