2004-10-26
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.
There is progress toward a vaccine to prevent malaria.
Researchers have been testing an experimental vaccine in Mozambique.
This is what they have found:
In a group of one thousand six hundred children, the vaccine
reduced the risk of malaria attacks by thirty percent. It reduced
the risk of severe cases of the disease by almost sixty percent.
Also, the vaccine appeared effective in preventing new cases of
infection with the malaria parasite most common in Africa. In a
second group of four hundred children, the vaccine reduced the risk
of new infections by forty-five percent.
The findings appeared earlier this month in The Lancet.
The researchers say the experimental vaccine is safe. Doctor
Pedro Alonso of the University of Barcelona, in Spain, led the
study. He says the vaccine should protect children for at least six
months. He noted that earlier tests found that the protection lasted
only a short time in adults.
There are several hundred million cases of malaria in the world
each year. Malaria damages the nervous system, kidneys and liver. By
current estimates, at least one million people a year die from
malaria. Most of those victims are young children in Africa. In
fact, malaria kills more African children under the age of five than
any other disease.
The economic costs to Africa from malaria are estimated at twelve
thousand million dollars a year.
People get malaria when they are bitten by mosquitoes that carry
the parasite. Researchers say the malaria parasite is more complex
than organisms that cause many other diseases. That has made it more
difficult to find a vaccine that is safe and effective. Cost is also
an important issue.
The Ministry of Health in Mozambique, the drug company
GlaxoSmithKline and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative supported the
tests. The initiative began in nineteen ninety-nine with fifty
million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
More testing is needed. Experts say they do not expect a malaria
vaccine to be approved for use until at least two thousand ten.
GlaxoSmithKline says it can take six years to build a factory where
the vaccine can be made.
More than one-third of all people live in countries with malaria.
By two thousand ten, experts say that share of the population will
increase to half.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen
Leggett. This is Gwen Outen.