First malaria vaccine may be available soon

Promising results from a clinical trial mean that the world’s first malaria vaccine may be available by 2015 and could save hundreds of thousands of lives. Promising results from a large-scale clinical trial mean that the world’s first malaria vaccine may be on the market by 2015 and could potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives a year. The phase III clinical trial of more than 15 000 infants and young children in Africa found that the vaccine called RTS,S continued to protect the youngsters from malaria for up to 18 months after vaccination. The ongoing trial of the RTS,S vaccine is being conducted by 11 research centres in seven African countries, together with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. “It appears that the RTS,S candidate vaccine has the potential to have a significant public health impact,” Halidou Tinto, lead investigator from the Nanoro, Burkina Faso trial site in West...