Malaria vaccine a step closer

Scientists have hailed as "unprecedented" the results of a trial of a malaria vaccine that has halved the incidence of severe disease in children over 18 months.

The success of the trial involving more than 1400 children aged 1 to 4 in Mozambique has raised hopes that a vaccine can be created against a disease which kills more than 1 million people a year.

Researchers have been working on a malaria vaccine for more than 20 years, but until now, none of the candidates has shown promise.

The vaccine used in the latest trial is the most advanced among more than a dozen being studied.

The results were presented yesterday at an international malaria conference in Cameroon.

Early trials of the vaccine last year showed it was effective over six months. The new study of the children who have been followed up for 18 months, published online in the Lancet, has shown that the protection was maintained.

The incidence of malaria among the subjects was reduced by more than a third and the risk of severe malaria, which kills thousands every week, was cut 49 per cent.

Pedro Alonso, of the University of Barcelona, said: "The unprecedented response demonstrated in this study is further evidence that an effective vaccine to help control the malaria pandemic ... is very possible."

Researchers have accepted that, at least for the foreseeable future, there is no prospect of a vaccine which would wipe out malaria the same way that the smallpox vaccine did for that disease, or even provide lifelong immunity.

But a vaccine that would turn the disease into a mostly mild infection would make a huge dent in the effort to control malaria, which kills a child every 30 seconds and poses a threat to half of all people on the planet.

About 500 million cases of malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, occur every year, mostly in the developing world. It is the leading killer of children under the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Several more years of clinical investigation will be needed before this vaccine is ready for licensing and implementation but today's results move us an important step closer to developing a vaccine that can provide lasting protection to help save millions of lives," said Jean Stephenne, president of GSK Biologicals, which has been working on a malaria vaccine for 15 years.

"The world should now take all required actions in order to get this vaccine to all the people who need it."

The vaccine could be on the market in 2011 if additional trials prove its effectiveness.

Melinda Moree, the director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, said: "The ability of this vaccine to protect children from severe malaria makes it very promising. We are committed to making an affordable, safe and effective malaria vaccine available as quickly as possible to those who need it most."

- INDEPENDENT