Positive results for malaria vaccine in Mali

Scientists conducting test on a malaria vaccine in Mali have reported promising results.

The candidate vaccine given to 40 Malian adults was found to produce strong immune response to the infectious disease and blocked the parasite from entering human blood cells.

A rural town which whose population often suffer from malaria was chosen, with volunteers given an injection of the vaccine in late December 2004, at the end of the rainy season.

Following the rainy season when the number of malaria-transmitting mosquito increases, those who had received an injection experienced a sixfold rise in vaccine-specific antibodies when exposed to the malaria parasites.

Scientists from the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako in Mali are now testing the candidate vaccine on 400 children aged between one and six years old.

Malaria kills more than one million people a year, with many of these being children.

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