Vaccine

Vaccine

At the same time that we work to control malaria through available tools, we need to continue to support the development of a vaccine.

As with any disease, finding a vaccine to protect individuals from malaria would create the best possible defense. Around the world, from Sweden to Kenya, from Australia to the United States, world class physicians are working on this important research. However, the malaria parasites have proven to be remarkably adaptable, meaning they change their characteristics as antibodies are developed; this adaptability has made finding a vaccine especially challenging.

Most experts agree that the world is at least a decade away from any sort of effective vaccine. In the meantime, we need to concentrate on providing solutions for prevention and treatment that exist today.

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In December 2008, The New England Journal of Medicine published the recent results of RTS,S vaccine trials in Tanzania and Kenya, which conclude that the malaria vaccine protected 65% of infants in the course of six months (Tanzania) and 53% of young children in the course of eight months (Kenya) from infection. (Read the studies here.)

A malaria vaccine is a crucial component of the ultimate eradication of the disease and this research shows that the world is closer than ever to finding a vaccine to guard against malaria. However, there is still much to be done—a wholly effective malaria vaccine is still many years away and the disease continues to claim almost a million lives each year, most of them children in Africa.

Malaria No More is working to rapidly scale-up malaria control efforts to eliminate malaria deaths as quickly as possible while scientists continue to research and develop a vaccine. Using proven prevention and treatment tools like mosquito nets, spraying and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), malaria deaths can be reduced to near zero. The world is working together to provide these tools to every person at risk in Africa by the end of 2010 and eliminate deaths from malaria by 2015. We can put a stop to malaria in the near-term and save millions of lives, made possible by increased funding, international engagement, political leadership and on-the-ground successes. The Global Malaria Action Plan provides a framework for success in the fight against malaria, including the complementary near-term goals of control and elimination and ultimate goal of eradication through the development of a vaccine.  

This successful trial is a major step toward eradication of a disease that has plagued the planet for centuries. Malaria No More recognizes this major milestone for the malaria community and congratulates the many researchers, scientists, doctors and global health professionals who contributed to these exciting studies and their remarkable results.  We look forward to working in concert with them to control, eliminate and eventually eradicate malaria as a global health crisis—making malaria no more for once and for all.