Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in Trials in Africa
Scientists on Sunday reported significant promise in the century-long struggle to develop a vaccine against malaria.
Malaria kills up to a million children annually in Africa, and there are up to 500 million cases of the disease each year globally. Moreover, the disease is increasingly showing resistance to drugs traditionally used to treat it.
Scientists working for a special tropical disease program jointly sponsored by the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank and the World Health Organization said a vaccine known as SPf66 has shown promising results in the first phases of human trials in a region of Africa with rampant malaria.
Preliminary data, to be published Friday in the British medical journal Vaccine, shows that SPf66 induces a strong immune response without any harmful side effects.
A final phase of human tests of the vaccine will determine whether SPf66 actually reduces the number of malaria cases. If those tests are successful, a vaccine could be available for widespread use by 1998.
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