14 DAY TRIAL // During the biggest-ever international malaria conference in Cameroon, where almost 2,000 researchers, health care workers and politicians have gathered to discuss the latest scientific findings on the disease, it was announced that a new GlaxoSmithKline Plc vaccine reduced cases of life-threatening malaria by 49 percent and all clinical cases by 35 percent in a group of Mozambican children treated in 2003.
"We are very excited about that because there is a malaria vaccine that protects children from malaria and it actually lasts long enough to make it a real public health intervention that can have an impact on malaria in Africa", Melinda Moree, director of the non-profit Malaria Vaccine Initiative, told Reuters.
The new vaccine is called Mosquirix and is the most advanced of a number of vaccine candidates in development, the British news agency informs.
Unfortunately, the researchers have announced that it will take some years before the vaccine reaches the market.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has recently announced three grants totaling $258.3 million for advanced development of a malaria vaccine, new drugs and innovative mosquito control methods.
A malaria infection starts about 9 to 14 days after being bitten and usually causes a high fever, headache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. If left untreated (and it usually is), it destroys red blood cells and can clog the arteries that carry blood to the brain. It is particularly lethal among children.