Insect-saliva vaccine thwarts parasite
Fly spit may yet make its way into the medical mainstream. A new study on mice demonstrates that a vaccine based on a component of sand fly saliva can protect against leishmaniasis, an illness that infects hundreds of thousands of people each year.
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Widespread in the tropics, the sometimes fatal illness produces disfiguring lesions. It’s caused by a group of single-celled parasites that dwell inside tiny blood-sucking sand flies. When they pierce a person’s skin, the flies inject the parasites into the bloodstream.