The long-awaited approval of Oxford’s R21 malaria vaccine has finally been granted, after 8 years of testing and trials. The West African countries of Ghana and Nigeria, have consented to it for the immunisation of infants between 5 months to 3 years of age, which is incidentally one of the highest mortality groups for malaria.
A study of R21 shots in 5,000 children in Burkina Faso, which is the final data trial, has been shown to various African health or drug authorities but is not yet public. The creation of this vaccine has been under development by scientists for over a century.
The way the R21 vaccine works is by training the body to create “very strong” antibody levels by inoculating it to the circumsporozoite protein coating found on between 10 to 20 of the various malaria parasites injected by the mosquito. It has achieved the highest ever efficacy rating of 80%, with the appropriate degree of safety.
The vaccine is expected to help with the malaria mortality rate in children and will contribute to the final goal of eradication and elimination, according to Professor Adrian Hill who is the director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, where the vaccine was invented.
Photo (c) Oxford University
