First Vaccine Against Malaria Shows Promise

A News & Events entry posted on October 25, 2011

CDC Statement on Results from RTS,S/AS01 Malaria Vaccine Trial

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention welcomes the announcement today that results from the clinical trial in Africa of a malaria vaccine candidate show it prevented about half of malaria cases, including the most severe, in young children.

The RTS,S/AS01 study results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are a promising advance in development of a malaria vaccine for African children, which, if successful, could save hundreds of thousands of lives. In 2009, malaria caused the deaths of nearly 800,000 people; approximately 90 percent were children in Africa.

Read more: CDC Media Statement

World’s first malaria vaccine works in major trial

Final-stage trial data released on Tuesday showed it gave protection against clinical and severe malaria in five- to 17-month-olds in Africa, where the mosquito-borne disease kills hundreds of thousands of children a year.

"These data bring us to the cusp of having the world’s first malaria vaccine," said Andrew Witty, chief executive of the British drugmaker that developed the vaccine along with the nonprofit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

Read more: Reuters