Research advances on malaria vaccine
LONDON – Scientists have made important progress in the quest for a malaria vaccine, showing for the first time that childhood shots can prevent nearly one-third of cases and slash the risk of severe, life-threatening attacks by almost two-thirds.
Experts say the findings, outlined this week in the Lancet medical journal, provide evidence that the dream of developing a vaccine that will get babies through the most vulnerable period of infancy could become a reality by the end of the decade.
Researchers have been working on a malaria vaccine for more than 20 years, but until now none of the candidates showed promise. If this research bears fruit, it would be the first human vaccine against a parasite.
Specialists agree that, at least for the foreseeable future, there is no prospect of a vaccine that would wipe out malaria like the smallpox vaccine did for smallpox, or even provide lifelong immunity. However, a vaccine that would turn the disease into a mostly mild infection would make a huge dent in the effort to control malaria, which kills a child every 30 seconds and poses a threat to half of all people on the planet. About 500 million episodes of malaria occur every year, mostly in the developing world.
“We think a vaccine is important because as quick as you can make new drugs, there’s resistance and (delivery of) bed nets has not been as simple as one would have hoped,” said Melinda Moree, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative. “We’ve been trying to apply our existing technologies and the number of malaria deaths is rising. We need some new tools.”
The vaccine, which GlaxoSmithKline Bio has been developing for 20 years, was tested in 2,022 children aged 1 to 4 in Mozambique, where the mosquito-borne disease is endemic.
After the children were treated with malaria drugs to get rid of any traces of the parasite, half got three shots of the malaria vaccine in three consecutive months, while the other half got other childhood vaccines.
The researchers found infection in 30 percent fewer children in the vaccine group than in the comparison group. The vaccine also reduced the risk of getting sick by 30 percent, the risk of getting repeated attacks by 30 percent, and cut by 58 percent the chance of developing severe malaria.