Malaria Vaccine Working Well On Babies

[Prakanong]

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation helped fund the trials

Edit - just noticed they got the Hep B vaccine name wrong in the article - its actually "Engerix"

<a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/85879.php" target="_blank">http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/85879.php</a>

"The children were randomly assigned to two groups, a vaccine group and a control group. The vaccine group received three doses of RTS,S/AS02D vaccine, and the other received a hepatitis vaccine Energix-B. The doses were given to the babies at age 10, 14 and 18 weeks. The children also received routine immunisations at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age.

The main object of the trial was to test vaccine safety. This was proven in that there were no serious vaccine-related adverse events in either of the two groups and neither was imbalance found between the two groups in unsolicited adverse events (side effects due to non vaccine causes).

However, the trial also showed good results on vaccine effectiveness because vaccinated babies showed a 65 per cent reduced risk of contracting new malarial infections. This compares with 45 per cent previously reported in a trial involving older children aged between 1 and 4 years."

Edited October 18, 2007 by Prakanong