Massive deployment of DDT may not be the only hope for exterminating malaria after all. The Economist reports on several different efforts well underway to develop malaria vaccines.

Remarkably, researchers at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute are harvesting an early version of their malaria vaccine right out of mosquitoes:

The team is breeding millions of Anopheles mosquitoes (pictured above) and infecting them with malaria-causing parasites.

Not any old parasites, either. Those he uses have had some of their genes knocked out to stop them breeding in humans. Their destiny, like that of the “attenuated” viral strains grown in eggs, is to form part of a vaccine.

This (and other vaccine developments like it) would be a huge step, making malaria-preventive efforts an even more compelling investment in Africans' health and well-being.