La Toile: WHO/AFRO Malaria Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2
The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa has welcomed the announcement that trials of a malaria candidate vaccine show promising results by providing protection against clinical malaria in children.
The results were announced at the Global Malaria Forum hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, USA and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Between May 2009 and January 2011, 15460 children from seven countries in Africa, namely, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania took part in the clinical trials. The trials showed that administration of the malaria candidate vaccine called RTS,S was able to prevent about 56% of children from developing clinical malaria. The incidence of severe malaria was reduced by about 35% in vaccinated children. The RTS,S candidate vaccine trial is ongoing and is scheduled for completion in 2014.
