The research team led by the Spanish Pedro Alonso has achieved a vaccine against malaria It protects for 18 months. It is estimated that malaria is a disease that kills a child every 30 seconds.
The studies began in 2003 at the Manhica Health Research Center in Mozambique, under the International Health Center of the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona. 1,442 children received three doses of the malaria vaccine when they were between 1 and 4 years old. Thus, they evaluated the safety, their immune response and whether the protective effects were permanent. So far the results are very encouraging. It is anticipated that this vaccine will save one in three children who have an average annual episode of malaria.
Scientists have started four months ago another study of the vaccine in children under one year. In this work we want to see, if it is effective in babies less than one year old, who usually have up to six months the antibodies against malaria that the mother transmits to them, and if they are capable of producing an immune response that causes Vaccine be effective.
If the results are positive, the malaria vaccine could be incorporated into the childhood vaccination calendar in 2010.
