Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Research scientists from Africa are on the verge of discovering a safe and effective malaria vaccine which has the potential to save thousands of lives in Africa, Dr Daniel Ansong of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Medical Sciences, has said."We are closer than ever before to having a safe and effective malaria vaccine…that will make a positive impact on the economy and the capacity of our health care system," he noted.
Speaking on the topic: "The search for malaria vaccine, where are we now?" at a forum to mark this year’s World Malaria Day in Accra last Friday, he said that research on the vaccine in Ghana and other African countries "is progressing well".
The forum was organised by the Africa Media and Malaria Research Network in collaboration with Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance and Malaria Consortium of Mozambique.
Dr Ansong said the vaccine was being tried in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Gabon, Burkina Faso and Mozambique.
The trial in Ghana started in 2006 by the Kintampo Health Research Centre and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, and is expected to enter the third phase this year.
It will end in 2011 for onward submission of the vaccine results to the regulatory authorities for approval and subsequent introduction to the market.
He said the vaccine would be "a key component of defeating malaria" which kills more than one million children annually, pointing out that vaccines are playing a leading role in the prevention of diseases like tuberculosis, polio and tetanus
He said results from the Mozambique trials showed a 49 per cent efficacy against severe malaria for 18 months in children between one and four years, while he described the results from Ghana’s trial as "encouraging" and the safety profile of the vaccine as "good".
He said 16,000 children are expected to be recruited across Africa for the third phase of the trial to determine the safety of the vaccine on a larger scale.
"We can no longer sit on our hands and accept the burden it (malaria) imposes," Dr Ansong said noting that 90 per cent of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa with a child dying every 30 seconds and within 48 hours of developing the symptoms.
Giving the link between HIV and malaria, Dr. Michael Ofori of the Nugochi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, said HIV and malaria influence each other. "HIV is known to impair elements of the immune system which is important in host-defence against malaria."
Malaria on the other hand, he said, has the potential to accelerate HIV disease’s progression through increased replication but added that it has not been proven anywhere in science that mosquitoes can transmit HIV to a person as the virus does not survive in mosquitoes.
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