Speaking during the institution’s third inaugural lecture, titled ‘Beating Parasites at their Game’, the don said: “Vaccines have been very effective in our effort to beat virus and bacteria at their game, but I might say, it gets more complicated when it comes to parasites.

“Like the malaria parasites, which develops in both humans and mosquitoes and has a larger surface area and genetic complexity. This means that each infection presents thousands of antigens (proteins) to the human immune system.

“They have so much mastered the art of camouflage changing through several developmental stages while in the human hosts, thereby presenting different antigens at different stages of their life cycle.

“Our best chance of beating them is to understand which of these antigens can be successfully targeted for use in vaccine development.”

Nwuba said facing this challenge has been an uphill task for those working in this field of research, more especially in Africa.

According to her, the malaria parasite is not idle waiting to see what man would do, but has also developed series of strategies that allow it to hide, confuse and misdirect human immune system to win this game.

“In our war against disease, attempting to beat the parasite at its own game, we need good counsel and advice information from our scientific research to develop the winning strategy,” she said.