According to the University of Oxford team behind it, a malaria vaccine has shown to be 77 percent successful in early trials and maybe a significant advance against the disease.
Malaria kills over 400,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa per year, the majority of which are infants.
Despite the fact that several vaccinations have been tested over the years, this is the first to reach the minimum standard.
According to the experts, this vaccination may have a significant public health effect.
The vaccine was shown to be effective in 450 children in Burkina Faso, and it demonstrated “high-level efficacy” over 12 months of follow-up.
To test the results, larger studies involving about 5,000 children aged five months to three years will be conducted in four African countries.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are spread by mosquito bites. Although it is preventable and curable, the International Health Organization reports 229 million cases and 409,000 deaths worldwide in 2019.
Fever, fatigue, and chills are common signs of the disease, leading to serious illness and death if not treated.
‘Malaria Vaccine and major health impact.’
According to study author Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute and professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, the vaccine was the first to achieve the World Health Organization’s target of at least 75% effectiveness.
In trials on African infants, the most successful malaria vaccine to date had only demonstrated a 55 percent efficacy rate.
“The trials of this malaria vaccine started in 2019, long before coronavirus appeared – and the Oxford team developed its Covid vaccine (with AstraZeneca) on the strength of its research into malaria,” Prof Hill said.
Since malaria has thousands of genes compared to just a few hundred in coronavirus, and a strong immune response is needed to combat the disease, a malaria vaccine has taken much longer to develop.
“That’s a real technical challenge, “said Prof Hill, “The vast majority of vaccines haven’t worked because it’s very difficult.”
However, he did say that the trial findings indicated that the vaccine was “very deployable” and “has the potential to have a major public health impact.”
‘Tool for saving lives’
The research team – from Oxford, Nanoro in Burkina Faso, and the United States – published the trial results of R21/Matrix-M in The Lancet, after testing a low and high dose of the vaccine in children between May and August, just before the peak malaria season.
In the higher-dose population, the vaccine had a 77 percent efficacy rate, and in the lower-dose group, it had a 71 percent efficacy rate.
The findings were “very exciting” and demonstrated “unprecedented efficacy levels,” according to Halidou Tinto, professor of parasitology and principal trial investigator at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro, Burkina Faso.
“We look forward to the upcoming ‘phase III’ trial to demonstrate large-scale safety and efficacy data for a vaccine that is greatly needed in this region.”
Malaria has killed more people in Africa than the coronavirus in the last year.
The vaccine’s manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, claims it will be able to produce more than 200 million doses of the vaccine once regulators have authorized it.
The vaccine’s adjuvant, a component that boosts immune response, was supplied by Novavax, a biotechnology corporation.
Malaria is one of the leading causes of childhood mortality in Africa. The latest data suggested that a new malaria vaccine might be approved “in the coming years,” according to Prof Charlemagne Ouédraogo, Burkina Faso’s minister of health.
“That would be an extremely important new tool for controlling malaria and saving many lives,” he stated.
