New malaria vaccine hailed as breakthrough

The Oxford vaccine is the first to meet the World Health Organization’s goal of 75% efficacy against the disease.

CAPE TOWN, April 23 (ANA) – A malaria vaccine that has proved to be 77% effective in early trials could be a major breakthrough against the disease, said the University of Oxford team behind it.

According to a Friday report by the BBC, when trialled in 450 children in Burkina Faso, the vaccine was found to be safe and showed “high-level efficacy” over 12 months of follow-up, said the university.

The Oxford vaccine is the first to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal of 75% efficacy against the mosquito-borne parasite and the university says that larger trials are set to begin, reported the Guardian.

The extended trial will involve 4,800 children in four countries.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through mosquito bites.

Although preventable and curable, the WHO estimates that there were 229 million cases worldwide in 2019 and 409,000 deaths.

More than 100 malaria vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials over recent decades, but none has shown the >75% efficacy targeted by the WHO’s Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap, said the University of Oxford.

According to the statement, Professor Charlemagne Ouédraogo, minister of health in Burkina Faso, said: “Malaria is one of the leading causes of childhood mortality in Africa. We have been supporting trials of a range of new vaccine candidates in Burkina Faso and these new data show that licensure of a very useful new malaria vaccine could well happen in the coming years.”

She added that the vaccine will be an extremely important new tool for controlling malaria and saving many lives.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher