Governments and private health institutions around the world have been engaged in a battle to fight Malaria, a disease that kills more than 1 million people annually and second to Tuberculosis in as far as effects on world health is concerned.

Deaths caused by this dreaded malady have fallen by almost 40 percent during the last 10 years, according to BBC News.

This indicates that efforts to combat this disease, which can be found in almost 100 countries and contaminates 1 out of 10 people in the whole world, may have paid off.

The parasitic disease is present in 90 countries and infects one in 10 of the world's population - mainly people living in Africa, India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Colombia and the Solomon Islands.

In Australia, the Institute for Glycomics' Laboratory of Vaccines for the Developing World of Griffith University in Queensland was able to discover a new vaccine in July that ensures protection against the effects of this dreaded illness according to reports from The Australian.

The Australian vaccine (PlasProtecT) contains whole malaria parasites that have been put to sleep using a unique chemical treatment that affects some of their DNA and are then injected in ultra-low doses in order to provoke an immune response that will protect against all strains of malaria, according to the lead researcher Professor Michael Good.

Good's team include 13 post-doctoral researchers, assistants and students working in collaboration with a team of Australian and international researchers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that a third of more than 100 countries where Malaria was prevalent appear to have found a solution to eliminate the disease within the next 10 years. More than 3 million lives could be saved by 2015 if objectives are to be achieved on time.

People who are stricken with this sickness may survive after three weeks. Symptoms include headaches, painful muscles and lack of energy.

BBC News reports say that the typical sign of the infection is a high fever, followed a few hours later by chills. Two to four days later, this cycle is repeated. Symptoms can appear any time from six days after being bitten by a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite. The time it takes symptoms to appear - the incubation period - can vary with the type of parasite that the mosquito was carrying.

A global malaria eradication campaign, launched by WHO in 1955, succeeded in eliminating the disease in 16 countries and territories.