Vaccine gives kids in Mali 'strong malaria protection'

AFP ^ | Feb 4, 2010 | Unknown

[decimon]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A malaria vaccine tested by US and African researchers in Mali produced a robust immune response in young children, the group most vulnerable to the mosquito-borne disease, a report released Thursday showed.

The vaccine, based on a single strain of the falciparum malaria parasite -- the most common and deadliest form of the parasite found in Africa -- was tested on 100 children between the ages of one and six in a rural part of the west African country of Mali.

The children were given one of three, progressively stronger doses of the vaccine or a control vaccine against rabies.

All three doses of the malaria vaccine were well tolerated by the children and produced "very strong antibody responses that were sustained for at least a year," said the report which was published online Thursday in PLoS ONE, the journal of the Public Library of Science.

In fact, the report said, the antibody levels the vaccine produced in the children were as high or higher than antibody levels found in adults, who have developed immune responses to the parasite over lifelong exposure to malaria.

[decimon]

Ex plasmodium ping.

[Oldpuppymax]

Of course if DDT were still being used, none of this would be necessary. But then everybody KNOWS how harmful DDT really is-—to mosquitos!!!

[neverdem]

Safety and Immunogenicity of an AMA1 Malaria Vaccine in Malian Children: Results of a Phase 1 Randomized Controlled Trial

[SunkenCiv]

The vaccine, based on a single strain of the falciparum malaria parasite...

Thanks decimon.