Life
Test vaccine halves the incidence of malaria in Africa’s children
The new vaccine targets a malaria parasite found in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria spreads through mosquitoes, which bite people and flush malaria parasites into the bloodstream. The parasites cause bouts of high fever and can end in fatal organ failure.
In the United States, malaria has been eradicated since the early 1950s. Only about 1,500 cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, most of them travelers or immigrants from South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa or other places where malaria commonly spreads.
The new study, still under way, began in 2009 and involves more than 15,000 children in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
The results focus on about 6,000 children ages 5 to 17 months. A year after three doses, the vaccinated children had about half as many cases of malaria as a group that didn’t get the vaccine.
Meanwhile, experts are waiting for results from research in a younger group, infants ages 6 to 12 weeks. That’s the age when children in sub-Saharan Africa are vaccinated against other diseases. Earlier vaccination also affords earlier protection.
Although there are an array of vaccines against viruses and bacteria, there has never been an effective vaccine against a parasite, which is a more complicated organism. Adding to the complexity is there are five species of malaria parasites, the new vaccine is designed specifically to protect against the deadliest one, which is common in sub-Saharan Africa.
GlaxoSmithKline paid for the study along with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
