A new vaccine shows promise as it surpasses final test of its clinical trial. The world's first malaria vaccine is on its way to Africa after final trial data showed that it offers partial protection for up to four years.
Reuters reports that the designed vaccine will be used in children in Africa and would be considered the first licensed human vaccine against malaria. Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes.
GlaxoSmithKline, a well-known pharmaceutical company, developed the vaccine called RTS,S and the results of their trial showed that it reduced the number of cases of clinical malaria in children ages 5 to 17 months old at first vaccination by over 36%, Times of India (TOI) reported.
"The good news is that this is a first generation malaria vaccine candidate and) actually the first human parasite vaccine that has been developed to this level. This trial was conducted at 11 African research centres in seven countries. The RTSS malaria vaccine has now been shown to prevent 1,700 cases of clinical malaria per 1000 children vaccinated on average and more than 6,000 cases averted in an area of high malaria transmission", Dr Kwaku Poku Asante, the chair of the Clinical Trial Partnership Committee, which managed the RTSS Phase 3 trial in Africa told TOI in an exclusive interview.
Africa is the most affected continent when it comes to malaria infection. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that about 3.2 billion people - almost half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria. In 2013, there were about 198 million malaria cases and an estimated 584,000 malaria deaths. In 2013, 90% of all malaria deaths occurred in the WHO African Region, mostly among children under 5 years of age.
According to Brian Greenwood, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who was part of the study, the vaccine prevented an average of 1,363 cases of malaria over four years for every 1,000 kids who were vaccinated.
GSK applied on July 2014 for the approval by the European Medicines Agency and once approved, WHO could use it by October 2015.
