By The Citizen Reporter
Posted Thursday, October 10 2013 at 00:00
Posted Thursday, October 10 2013 at 00:00
In Summary
Durban, Wednesday. Experts in Africa, the
continent worst-hit by malaria, reacted with optimism but also caution
on Tuesday to news that the first vaccine against the killer disease may
soon reach the market.
GlaxoSmithKline said it was seeking approval for a
prototype vaccine that reduced the risk of malaria by almost half among
children aged between five and 17 months, and by around a quarter among
infants aged between six and 12 weeks.
“This is the first vaccine against malaria,”
Sophie Biernaux, a malaria vaccine leader at GSK, told AFP in Durban. If
the British drugmaker’s application is successful, the vaccine could be
rolled out within two years.
The mosquito-borne disease kills an estimated
660,000 people each year, 90 per cent of them in Africa, with the
majority being children under five.
“This is great hope for Africa,” Nilton Saraivo, a manager of Angola’s national anti-malaria programme, told AFP.
In Gabon, one of the countries where clinical
trials were conducted, researcher Bertrand Lell said the vaccine’s
efficacy “is not very large” compared to vaccines such as the one
against polio. “But given the prevalence of malaria in Africa, you can
imagine the impact it will have on people if the mortality rate is down
50 per cent,” said Lell, of the Lambarene Centre for Medical Research.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo -- which has
the world’s second-highest malaria death rate after Nigeria -- Sanru, an
organisation that distributes mosquito nets to fight malaria, said it
was too early to declare victory.
It noted that the vaccine did not offer a complete
shield, although trials -- including assessment of a booster shot --
are ongoing. (AFP)
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
