A malaria vaccine created by Oxford researchers “is really exciting” and could contribute towards drastically reducing the number of children who die from the infection, experts are hoping. A study reporting on the effectiveness of a malaria booster vaccine shows long-lasting high efficacy in African children, meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) specified 75% efficacy goal, it is claimed.
The research found that a vaccine booster dose one year after children received three doses as their primary vaccination regime maintained high efficacy against malaria. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute and Lakshmi Mittal and Family Professor of Vaccinology, University of Oxford, said: “I think this is really exciting – people have been trying to make malaria vaccines for over a century.
“The first clinical trial was in 1940s, 140 Different malaria vaccines have been into arms to see if the world can make a vaccine that is useful against malaria. We think these data are the best data yet. And very importantly, this is a vaccine that we think can be manufactured and deployed, very widely.”
