170 Babies To Test New Malaria Vaccine

By Stephen Kwabena Effah, Kintampo
Tuesday, 09 January 2007 (Page 3)

The Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) is to recruit 170 babies at birth for the second phase of the Malaria Vaccine Trial now ongoing in the Kintampo North and South districts of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Currently, only children aged between five and 17 months are participating in the two-year malaria vaccine trial which started last September, and is being sponsored by the Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

Dr. Seth Owusu-Adjei, Director of KHRC, said that half of the babies would be given the malaria vaccine alongside the routine polio and tuberculosis vaccines that are given children from the age of six weeks.

"The other half will go on the normal routine vaccinations and the two group would be evaluated later to determine the level of protection that they would have from the malaria vaccine and the level of protection they would have from the routine vaccination," he told a team of journalists.

This was at a Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance sponsored field trip for journalists from the Africa Media and Malaria Research Network to assess the progress of the malaria vaccine trial in the Kintampo districts.

Dr. Owusu-Adjei an epidemiologist, said the plan is going through "ethical approval" and explained that "the earlier you introduce protection for malaria into a child, the better."

"If the vaccine is able to achieve 50 per cent protection against severe malaria after the trial, then it could reduce the mortality from 20,000 to 10,000 annually in the country," he stated.

Dr. Owusu-Adjei said that other forms of malaria protections such as the insecticide-treated nets and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnant women, could also add up to the percentage and help to reduce the malaria burden dramatically.

Asked whether any of the tried participants had experienced an attack, since the trial began, he replied: "We’ve treated some of the kids for malaria," but pointed out that not every child in the trial is on the malaria vaccine.

He said the phase three of the project would begin next year and by 2011, it would be adopted by the government.