Millions of children could be protected against malaria as final clinical trials of RTS, S/ASO1, a malaria vaccine, the first to reach this stage, have been done.
Tests on 16,000 children from 7 African countries found that booster doses were of limited use and the vaccines in young babies were ineffective.
Children between ages of 5-17 months were given 3 doses of the vaccine, however the immunizations were only 46 percent effective.
Experts say that getting the vaccine this far is a scientific milestone.
Data from the trial published in The Lancet showed that the success rate fell to even lower levels in young infants.
However, this is the first malaria vaccine to show any sign of working in children but observers believe there is still a long way to go.
There is no licenced vaccine in the world. Prof. Brian Greenwood, study author and professor of clinical tropical medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says he was a little disappointed by the results of the clinical trial. He had hoped for a better result.
Vaccinations took place at eleven sites across Bukina Faso, Gabon, Ghana,Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania.
Culled from BBC
No comments:
Post a Comment