Malaria vaccine called a 'milestone'
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NEW YORK - A vaccine that may become the world's first to prevent malaria shows promise in protecting African children, researchers said yesterday, calling the results a "major milestone."
In early tests, the experimental vaccine was more than 50 percent effective in preventing the deadly disease in infants and toddlers in two countries in Africa, the scientists said. A larger and longer test is expected to begin early next year, the latest effort at slowing a disease that kills nearly 1 million people annually.
It is the first malaria vaccine to make it this far, and if further studies are successful, marketing approval could be sought as early as 2011. The vaccine was developed by the British-based
The results "add to our confidence that we are closer than ever before" to a malaria vaccine for African children, Dr. Christian Loucq, director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, said during a teleconference from New Orleans.
The nonprofit group was started with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help develop malaria vaccines and make sure they're available where needed. The group teamed up with GlaxoSmithKline, and both paid for the vaccine studies.
The findings were presented yesterday at a New Orleans meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and will be in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. Some of the researchers work for the nonprofit group or the drugmaker.
Malaria is a tropical disease whose victims are mostly young children in sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by a parasite and spread through a bite from an infected mosquito.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
