Scientists Trick Mosquitoes Into Vaccinating Against Malaria by Biting

It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it's for a good cause and scientists are trying to deliver a life-saving vaccine.

NPR reported last week that clinical trial participants put their arms inside mesh containers filled with 200 mosquitoes for an experiment and the result was gnarly. A participant's arm was covered in blisters that looked like burns.

Photos are worth a thousand words, but only if you're not squeamish, and the study about the new vaccine method is just as important. At the end of August, a team of researchers from the Seattle Children's Research Institute and other institutions published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

This is the first time that researchers have modified parasites to carry a disease without causing illness.

Sean Murphy is a researcher at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Fourteen of the 26 people in the study were exposed to Malaria, and half of them contracted the disease. There is room for improvement since the technique is currently 50 percent effective.

Researchers told NPR that the goal isn't to release huge numbers of mosquitoes that inoculate against malaria instead of spreading it, but rather to raise deep questions about medical consent.

They are just exploring a potentially cost effective way of developing and distributing vaccines. Malaria mortality in Africa has been worse than in the rest of the world, so it's worthwhile.

The CDC is trying to get Americans to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections.