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Researchers Hope They've Discovered 1st Vaccine For Malaria

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Los Angeles Times

Published: October 18, 2007

An experimental malaria vaccine protected 65 percent of Mozambiquan infants who received a full course of injections, paving the way for a large clinical trial of what could be the first vaccine against the deadly disease, researchers reported Wednesday.

Infants are among the most vulnerable to malaria, but they also have proved to be among the most difficult to immunize.

The findings 'show that we are making real progress toward a malaria vaccine,' said Christian Loucq, director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which sponsored the trial with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Loucq said he thinks the vaccine could be commercially available by 2012.

The results, published online by the journal Lancet, were reported at a Seattle malaria meeting sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Malaria kills more than 1 million people each year, 90 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa and 80 percent of them under the age of 5. It sickens another 300 million.

Infants who received the full three doses of vaccine had 65 percent fewer new infections and clinical illnesses in the three months after the last dose was given than did those in the control group.

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