New vaccine can cut malaria risk by 70%

A team of researchers led by a Japanese professor has developed a vaccine that cuts the risk of malaria in humans by some 70 percent, according to a recent article published in the U.S. journal PLOS One. If the vaccine is put to practical use, the number of deaths caused by the mosquito-borne disease is expected to decrease markedly. At present, no antimalarial vaccine is commercially available. According to World Health Organization data, some 660,000 people, mainly infants, die of the disease worldwide every year. There are medicines to prevent the disease and treat patients, but parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs is increasingly becoming a problem. The vaccine developed by the team, led by Toshihiro Horii, professor at Osaka University’s Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, is called BK-SE36. The dry powder vaccine is injected after being dissolved in water. In Japan, its safety was confirmed in a clinical trial in 2005. A trial carried out...