Malaria vaccine a reality by 2015?

New Delhi: January 15, 2011

A malaria vaccine could be a reality by 2015. The most promising candidate now showing that it can protect children for 15 months. The efficacy of the vaccine, whose phase-II trial results have just been published in the British medical journal Lancet, reduced from 53% for eight months (during the phase-I study in 2008) to 46% when it protected for 15 months. Indian experts, however, claim that for a vaccine to be effective in the field, it has to give protection of over 75%. “At present, long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets give 60% protection, and its per capita cost is very low. Hence, a vaccine has to be at least 75% effective,” a vector-borne disease control programme expert said.

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