Positive results if possible malaria vaccine

A small-scale clinical study in Burkina Faso showed that the vaccine provided protection of up to 77 percent. The test group for the study, which began in 2019, consisted of 450 young children. The results were followed up for a year, researchers at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford wrote in a statement Friday.

The vaccine, called R21 / Matrix-M, has only been tested in what is called a phase two study, and the researchers plan to conduct a phase three study with 4,800 children in four African countries, according to Reuters news agency.

The study is interesting, says Professor Mats Wahlgren of the Karolinska Institute in Solna.

Wahlgren, a parasitologist He conducted groundbreaking research on malaria parasites, indicating that he did not have time to review the primary data in the study.

At the same time, he stresses the importance of developing a vaccine against malaria.

Professor Adrian Hill, who heads the Jenner Institute where the research is conducted, says the findings are important in the global fight against malaria. The institute is the same as that co-developed a vaccine against covid-19 produced by Astra Zeneca.

– We must build on this (malaria vaccine). . . “We have to pay attention to every warning sign, but I think the odds are good,” he told AFP.

In the survey, 450 children were divided into three groups. The first group received a lower dose of the malaria vaccine, while the second group received a higher dose. Reuters wrote that the third group received a completely different vaccine used against rabies.

Neither the researchers nor the relatives of the young children knew who received the vaccine or how much dose they received.

World Health Organization (WHO) Set a goal to develop a malaria vaccine that has at least 75 percent protection. An earlier vaccine developed by drug company Glaxo Smith Kline – Mosquirix – reached 30 percent protection.

According to the United Nations, about 400,000 people die every year from malaria.