Malaria vaccine shows promise in babies
An early stage trial carried out in Africa of a malaria vaccine already shown to be effective in adults has suggested it is safe and even more effective for young babies, setting the stage for larger scale final phase trials.
The research, published online in The Lancet, was carried out on 214 babies in Mozambique, in which the vaccine was tested for efficacy and safety. The children were randomly assigned either to a vaccine group or a control group. The vaccine group were given three doses of RTS,S/AS02D vaccine, and the other group received a hepatitis vaccine Energix-B. The doses were given to the babies at age 10, 14 and 18 weeks. The children also received routine immunisations at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age.
The main object of the trial was to show vaccine safety, and there were no vaccine-related side effects reported. However, the trial also showed good results for efficacy. Vaccinated babies had their risk of contracting malaria reduced by 65%. This compares with a reduced risk of 45% reported in children between the ages of one and four years.
The vaccine appears to be effective against all strains of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.
The vaccine was made by GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the Path Malaria Vaccine Initiative and the trial was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The next stage will be a two year phase III trial which is planned to involve 16,000 children in 7 countries, scheduled to start at the end of 2008.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 40 per cent of the world's population, 2.5 billion people, are at risk of malaria, which mostly strikes those living in the poorest countries. 500 million become severely ill with the disease every year and over 1 million die from it.
In Africa, 1 in every 5 childhood deaths is due to malaria. Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria, and on average an African child has between 1 and 5 episodes of fever from the disease every year.
