Researchers believe they've unraveled a major mystery - one that could lead to a vaccine for malaria within a few years. Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England, have discovered a specific red blood cell molecule that they say is an entry way for the parasite that spreads malaria, a disease for which there is currently no effective treatment. Isolating this molecule could well lead to a vaccine that could, ultimately, eradicate the deadliest form of the mosquito-borne disease that kills an estimated five million people worldwide each year, many of them children in Africa.

What does this mean for us? A lot. A whole lot!

Without getting too much into the scientific mumbo-jumbo, here's the gist: Discovering how the (most deadly) parasite that causes malaria gets into our blood streams will allow scientists to find ways to block it. The red blood cells are what carry the P. falciparum parasite and allow it to spread rapidly through the body, resulting in full blown malaria. If the parasite isn't allowed to get into the body in the first place? A person will not get sick. Millions of lives will be saved. And hopefully, someday, malaria will be a thing of the past.

If a vaccine can be developed that stops this parasite in its tracks, entire populations worldwide will be immunized and the disease could be eradicated across the globe. While U.S. residents likely don't think much about a malaria risk (there isn't one, quite simply), keep this in mind: Half the world's population does live in areas that are high-risk for malaria. This very exciting breakthrough by the Cambridge scientists could help to alleviate the constant fears of those who live in these high-risk areas of the world. Mothers in sub-Saharan Africa will no longer have to watch their young children die from the disease with complications like brain infections, kidney failure and worse.

Here's hoping that this incredible breakthrough discovery inspires everyone involved to work quickly, to get a malaria vaccine to everyone as soon as possible. After decades of waiting for a true weapon to fight this killer, we're right on the verge, now.