scientists are resorting to a controversial method that entails purposefully infecting volunteers with potentially fatal viruses, parasites, and bacteria.
It was a strange volunteer opportunity. However, there they were, a bunch of young adults ready to be bitten by mosquitoes that transmit a parasite that claims the lives of over 600,000 people annually.
The group had consented to participate in a clinical trial at the Jenner Institute of the University of Oxford, which aimed to test a novel malaria vaccine. Scientists were excited about the vaccine, which was dubbed “R21,” even in its early stages.
While the institute had been using mosquitoes for similar investigations since 2001, the trial was conducted in 2017. Every volunteer was escorted into a lab. There was a little pot with a gauze cover on top that was shaped like a coffee cup sitting on a table. Five humming mosquitoes that were brought from North America and carried the malaria parasite were found within. In order to allow the mosquitoes to begin their work of biting through the cover and into the volunteer’s flesh, the volunteer would place their arm up against the top of the pot. The saliva that the mosquitoes used to prevent the coagulation of their meal may have carried the malaria parasite into the wound as the insects drained the blood of their eager victim.
