Anti-malaria shot may be reality in 4 yrs

[theblackalchemist]

Anti-malaria shot may be reality in 4 yrs

 

NEW DELHI: A vaccine against malaria, the world's most notorious vector-borne disease, is finally in sight and could become a reality in four

years time.

 

Two separate trials of the promising candidate vaccine RTSS/AS on children as young as eight weeks old in Africa, have found that it reduced clinical malaria incidents by nearly 65%.

 

Also, the children in Tanzania and Kenya, who were administered the vaccine as part of an advanced Phase II trial, did not report any major side-effects. Scientists who published this finding in Monday's edition of "The New England Journal of Medicine" say that this vaccine once available, could dramatically reduce malarial infections in children 5 to 17 months of age.

 

The vaccine that protects against the most deadly form of malaria -- Plasmodium Falciparum -- was found to be equally effective when co-administered with other childhood vaccines such as polio, diphtheria and tetanus, paving its way for use in national immunization programmes across the world.

 

The phase III trial -- the final hurdle before marketing approval for the vaccine can be sought -- for which 12,000 to 16,000 children will be enrolled across Africa, is set to begin early 2009. Babies vaccinated during this trial will be monitored for at least three years afterwards.

 

Christian Loucq, director of PATH's Malaria Vaccine Initiative, said: "We are closer than ever before to developing a malaria vaccine for children in Africa. History has shown that vaccines are the most powerful tool to control and eliminate infectious diseases. Clearly, the world urgently needs a safe and effective vaccine against malaria."

 

Dr A P Dash, director of ICMR's Malaria Research Centre, said: "This looks most promising till now. We have to wait for the large scale human Phase III trial results."

 

Joe Cohen, co-inventor of the vaccine at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (GSK), said: "The vaccine works alongside standard infant vaccines, has a favourable safety profile and has consistently shown a significant efficacy level."

 

In the first study, the vaccine when co-administered at 8, 12, and 16 weeks of age on 340 infants in Tanzania with commonly used childhood vaccine, did not interfere with the protective immune responses to each of the vaccine components. The study reported 65% reduction against first infection from malaria in those infants who received three doses of the vaccine and were followed over a six-month period.

 

The second study, which enrolled 894 children 5-17 months old in both Kenya and Tanzania, was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of RTSS/AS. The study was a randomized clinical trial in which children received either three doses of the RTSS vaccine candidate or a rabies vaccine.

 

Anti-malaria shot may be reality in 4 yrs -Health/Sci-The Times of India