Hopes for malaria vaccine.

Edit [Moderator]: Moved from International News to Medical News & Health.

One could argue that this belongs in health - but, if it is effective, the impact in the areas of the world subject to malaria (which are tipped to grow as global warming picks up speed) could be enormous - so I have added it to International news.

Full story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/health/15malaria.html?ex=1255579200&en=de6708254ddc9683&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt



Malaria Vaccine Proves Effective
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: October 15, 2004


or the first time, researchers say, a vaccine against malaria has shown that it can save children from infection or death.

The vaccine, tested on thousands of children in Mozambique, was hardly perfect: It protected them from catching the disease only about 30 percent of the time and prevented it from becoming life-threatening only about 58 percent of the time.

But because malaria kills more than a million people a year, 700,000 of them children, even partial protection would be a public health victory. The disease, caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes, is found in 90 countries, and drug-resistant strains are spreading.

Dr. Allan Schapira, strategy coordinator for the Roll Back Malaria campaign at the World Health Organization, said the trial was "good news, and definitely of great interest for malaria control."

The director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which is underwriting tests on 15 experimental vaccines with money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the GlaxoSmithKline product tried in Mozambique was now its leading candidate and had proved that the concept worked.

"We'd all like to see the numbers be higher, absolutely," said Dr. Melinda Moree, director of the initiative. "But these are still very significant findings.".........