A new study shows that malaria and deaths from this disease could be reduced by 70%. The solution found by researchers is to vaccinate the population before the rainy season, in addition to the administration of preventive drugs.
The researchers looked at 6,000 children under the age of 17 months in Burkina Faso and Mali. Most of the 400,000 deaths caused by malaria each year are in children under five, Mediafax reports.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on giving very young children an already used vaccine and antimalarial drugs during the year when they are most exposed in the rainy season, when mosquitoes multiply, according to the BBC. .
“It worked better than I thought,” said Prof. Brian Greenwood, a member of the research team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which led the process. “Hospitals were less crowded, the death rate was lower in both countries, and we really didn’t expect to see that.”
Three years later, the study found that three doses of vaccine and drugs given before the worst malaria season, followed by a booster dose before subsequent rainy seasons, controlled infections much better than the previous treatment schedule, they said. researchers.
Among the children who received doses of vaccine and medication were: 624 cases of malaria, 11 children treated in hospital with severe malaria and three deaths from malaria.
Of the same number of children who received only preventive drugs, there were 1,661 cases of malaria, 37 hospitalizations and 11 deaths from malaria
Scientists say the combined effects of the vaccine and drugs appear to be surprisingly strong.
The vaccine, called RTS, S and created by GlaxoSmithKline more than 20 years ago, kills parasites that multiply very quickly in the liver, while anti-malarial drugs target parasites in the body’s red blood cells.
Influenza vaccines have been used seasonally to protect people before winter for many years, but have rarely been tested for malaria.
Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Program, said: “We welcome this innovative use of a malaria vaccine to prevent disease and death in areas of Africa.”
The vaccine has already reached more than 740,000 children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi as part of the routine vaccination program. Researchers in Mali also say they look forward to a “swift political decision” from the WHO on this new approach.
No side effects were found in the target children in this study. They will continue to receive vaccines and medicines until the age of five, and studies will continue.
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