Weekly Article: The Malaria Vaccine

by Rasha Sawaya
Children's National

A week ago a friend asked me: "So, what about that new malaria vaccine?" - I had no clue what she was talking about. In case someone else is as clueless as me, I thought I'ld forward this to you all!

The following abstract was presented at the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan-African Conference early in October.

This was a multi-center study of over 15,000 children in 7 African countries. They showed that over 18 months, vaccination averted 941 (range:47-2356) cases of clinical malaria and 21 (range-4-44) cases of severe malaria per 1000 children vaccinated and 444 (range:-12-1429) cases of clinical malaria and 8 (range:-14-33) cases of severe malaria per 1000 infants vaccinated. Vaccination Efficacy (VE) waned significantly over time in both age groups. In children, VE against clinical malaria was 46% [95%CI:42-50] and in infants 27% [95%CI:20-32]. Case fatality rate for malaria and all-cause mortality was low and no vaccine effect was observed on malaria mortality, pneumonia or septicemia.

Dr. Kaslow, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative at the nonprofit health organization PATH, was also interviewed in The New Yorker. It's a very nice read that I recommend.

Here Dr. Kaslow discussed the VE rates of only 46% (children), which is not usually what is desired from vaccines. And reports that: "when the disease burden is huge, even moderately successful vaccines can have a huge impact". Averting 941 cases/1000 children of clinical malaria could be worth while in sub-saharan Africa.

This vaccine is still not approved and it's price is yet not discussed... but for the future of children in Sub saharan Africa, this could be a huge step forward.