Vaccine Against Malaria Successful in Preliminary Tests

Scientists may have developed an effective vaccine against malaria, a disease that affects more than 500 million people each year worldwide and causes the death of more than 2 million people each year, many of them children. The disease-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is transmitted when mosquitoes carrying the parasites bite people. The vaccine contains one of the surface proteins of P. falciparum and seems to induce the immune system to produce defenses that are able to destroy the parasite in future infections. In tests, six out of seven vaccinated people did not get malaria after being bitten by mosquitoes that carried P. falciparum. Although research is still underway, many are hopeful that this new vaccine may be able to fight malaria, especially in Africa where the disease takes a devastating toll.

"African Malaria Study Draws Attention," by Eliot Marshall Science, vol. 275, page 299, January 17, 1997

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