MALARIA VACCINE RESEARCH.
Posted by African Press International on May 3, 2012
- By Dickens Wasonga, Kenya
RESEARCH scientists working to develop the most advanced clinical malaria vaccine have hinted at a possibility of it being rolled out for use in the Kenya Expanded Program on Immunization by 2015.
The scientists led by Dr. Walter Otieno, a principal Investigator based at the Kombewa Walter Reed Project last week told a media workshop that the ongoing Malaria Vaccine Trials which is on its last phases has shown efficacy and is safe on human beings and could be the magic bullet the world has been waiting for over the last 40 years to combat Malaria.
Giving progress highlights on the vaccine which is also known as the RTSS to the health writers at Kombewa which is one of the 11 study sites in Africa, Dr. Otieno said a total of 1631 children of ages 5-17 months have been put on the malaria vaccine study trials within the area.
He was speaking during a one day media workshop organized by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), a network that links scientists and health reporters working to communicate research findings across nine African countries.
From the findings of the previous trials conducted in both phase one and two, Dr. Otieno said the vaccine showed it could offer protection against clinical malaria among children below five years of age by over 50 percent.
He said researchers noticed that when administered it was able to protect such children for one year without need for a boost.
The Principal Investigator said they intend to boost the vaccine by the year 2025 so as to offer a protection at 80 percent.
“Our strategic goal is to ensure that by 2025, the malaria vaccine will have been boosted to offer protection at 80 percent against clinical diseases and lasts longer than four years,” Dr. Otieno said.
The trial which started in May 2009 has been carried out in 11 sites Africa and is in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania where enrollment was completed in January this year with 15,460 children and infants enrolled thus making it the largest malaria vaccine trial to date.
Research experts working to tame malaria points out that currently there is no licensed vaccine against malaria, a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of children under the age of five each year most of them in Sub-Saharan.
RTSS is the world’s most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate currently under research trials by leading African research institutions in partnership with PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative{MVI}funded by Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.The results of the clinical studies have
shown that the vaccine promising safety and tolerability profile thus reduce the risk of clinical episodes of malaria in young children by 53 percent over and an eight month follow-up period.
But even as hope to have a vaccine to control the deadly disease, medics are raising red flag over increasing resistance to current available tools for dealing malaria a blow.
The executive director of AMRREN, Ms Charity Binka of Ghana in her speech to mark this year’s world malaria day said the current recommended first line artemisinin based therapies commonly referred to as ACTs risks developing resistance due to poor usage.
” Most people rely on over the counter drugs and majority of patients fail to complete recommended dosage. These habits erodes the gains made by those who develop drugs for malaria treatment. Self medication poses real danger and should be checked” She said.
She also asked African government agencies that regulate operations of pharmaceutical firms to be vigilant and stamp out sale of counterfeit and sub substandard drugs that are easily available in most urban centers of these countries.
Currently the government has scaled up use of long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets which it has been distributing free of charge to pregnant mothers targeting to protect them from mosquito bites and the children especially those under five years who are the worst affected.
Residual spraying of houses and bush clearing has also been advocated in the past as well as encouraging effective treatment of malaria by ACTs whose prices have been subsidized for ease of access to even the poor who need it.
In Western part of the country , scientists say the malaria cases have gone down to about 40 per cent due to the efforts.
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