A new clinical trial has found what could be the key in stopping countless deaths from a very common disease in developing countries.
A new vaccine known as RTS,S/AS01 has been shown in a clinical trial to have strong possibilities for greater malaria prevention.
A phase III clinical trial, the RTS,S Clinical Trials Partnership, resulted in a substantial numbers of clinical malaria cases being prevented as long as 48 months after the vaccine had been administered, according to a Medpage Today report.
The vaccine would require booster doses to strengthen it.
The group who conducted the trial had also released the results of a phase II clinical trial as well as preliminary data from the phase III trial in late 2013, and they found that the effectiveness of the vaccine declined with time.
Researchers observed children between the ages of 5 and 17 months as well as infants younger than 12 weeks but older than 6 weeks. They were divided into three groups: one that received three doses of the vaccine and a booster dose after 20 months, another that received three doses of the vaccine and then a control vaccine dose at the 20th month, and the final group, which had three doses of the control vaccine and a control vaccine dose after 20 months.
There were 116 children in the first group who contracted severe malaria, compared with 169 in the second and 171 in the third.
About 96 infants came down with malaria in the first group, compared to 104 in the second and 116 in the third.
About 198 million malaria cases were identified in 2013, meaning that if the vaccines are as effective as the clinical trials show, it could result in millions of fewer cases in children, according to one scientists quoted in the report.
