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IT鈥橲 tantalisingly close. The world鈥檚 first malaria vaccine could win official approval by the end of the year, following promising trial results announced last week.
The RTS,S vaccine was tested in seven African countries in thousands of very young children. They had three injections within two months, and a booster dose 18 months later. After four years, the by 36 and 26 per cent in groups aged 5 to 17 months and 6 to 12 weeks at first vaccination (The Lancet, ).
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There were , so using the vaccine could prevent of millions of cases, says Brian Greenwood of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Developers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have applied for the vaccine to be approved, and the European Medicines Agency is expected to decide in September. In anticipation, the World Health Organization has assembled a panel that will meet in October to debate whether to make RTS,S routine for children in Africa.
However, a GSK spokeswoman says that even if the vaccine is approved, it could take two more years to get the green light in individual African countries.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢alaria milestone鈥�