Malaria vaccine stops working after 4 years

A new vaccine that has raised hopes of becoming a potent new tool in the battle against malaria seems to stop working in children after four years, according to research published recently. The vaccine candidate – known as RTS,S – is not yet on the market, but ongoing trials in seven African countries generated hope that it might help slow new malaria cases as drug resistance to the deadly parasite grows. One child in Africa dies every minute from malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that kills an estimated 655 000 people every year. There is currently no vaccine available that offers full protection against it. What the latest data showed The latest data comes from a phase II follow-up study on 320 children in Kenya which found that in the first year after vaccination, protection against malaria was 43.6%, but that dropped to zero by the fourth year. It also found that the more often a...