Malaria vaccine halves risk of infection in infants

Good news from the world's largest and most advanced trial of a vaccine against malaria. The vaccine, called RTS,S, halved the risk of developing the disease.

The RTS,S trial involves 15,460 children in seven African countries. The new result comes from an interim analysis of 6000 of the participants, aged 5 to 17 months, a year after they received their jabs.

"We're pleased with this result," says Mary Hamel, a member of the vaccine trial team based at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi.

"We're on track to what would be the first malaria vaccine for African children," she says, adding that with continued progress, the vaccine could be in general use as soon as 2015. "At an efficacy of 50 per cent, it would be sufficient to save hundreds of thousands of lives."

The vaccine reduced the risk of developing clinical malaria ? when the disease requires medical treatment ? by 56 per cent. The possibility of developing severe malaria dropped by 47 per cent.

Final results from the trial, including those from vaccinating infants aged a mere 6 to 12 weeks, are due in 2014. The results so far have matched those from earlier trials of RTS,S. Other vaccines under development could soon enter trials too.

Journal reference: New England Journal of Medicine, DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa1102287

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