Spain’s Pedro Alonso leads a team of experts currently working on a vaccine in the war against malaria, a disease carried by mosquitoes that kills more than a million people each year.
Dr. Alonso lives and works in Mozambique, a region where Malaria is widespread. In 1996, he founded the Manhiça Health Research Center located in an impoverished rural area far from the technologically advanced societies and research facilities present in developed nations.
Today his team has published a paper in The Lancet reporting that an effective vaccine for malaria could be licensed by 2010. The trial vaccine has been tested in more than 2000 children between the ages of one and four. In trials, the vaccine has decreased the risk of developing severe malaria by 58%, thus providing the best results yet of several other trial vaccines currently under development.
Also today it has been learned that the vaccine, which has been tested on 220 children of 2, 3 and 4 months of age for three months, has cut the risk of developing the disease within this group by 65%.
According to Alonso, the vaccine has shown to be safe and effective. Nevertheless, further tests and trials will be necessary before a license be granted. During the study, the vaccine was well-tolerated by children with only few serious side-effects.
A main concern raised by most scientists is, however, the potential cost and availability of vaccines and treatments for malaria. The African continent is the most severely hit by malaria. Although this vaccine is not 100% effective, Alonso has stressed that even a moderately effective one would make a significant impact on the lives of many African children, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. With or without a vaccine, scientists believe that other existing measures such as bed-nets and the spraying of houses are indispensable in the mid and long-term fight against malaria.
Alonso’s team hopes the vaccine is ready by 2010.
Original Source (s):
El País Article
BBC Article
Picture Credits:
New York Times
USGS
Aitana, I just realized I had not commented on your important report about a possible malaria vaccine. I think we in the U.S. are a bit cut off from the reality of malaria - as we are cut off from so much of the world - and we forget what a devastating disease it is. Thank you for this update. We can only pray the vaccine will be successful.
Deborah