A world-changing malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University under trial in West Africa offers up to 80% protection for two years.
More than 400 children took the jab, with effective outcomes.
Malaria is a parasitic infection spread by mosquitoes. It kills about half a million children each year in sub-Saharan Africa.
There have been many previous efforts to develop living malarial vaccines to combat the mosquito-borne disease that kills a child every minute.
One attempt looked at zapping the parasites with radiation to make them unable to multiply. Another approach is to infect people with wild-type parasites and then give them antimalarial drugs. Using genetically modified parasites will be safer, the researchers say.
To this end, the team from Oxford is working with the Serum Institute in India – the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer.
Scientists project at least 100 million doses produced at highly affordable rates in 2023.
At the moment, the RTS,S vaccine in spite of its limitations, is the only malaria vaccine recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) for children living in regions with high burden of P. falciparum malaria.
The Burnet Institute is helping with important research to refine and build on the vaccine to offer better protection.
Plans are under way to submit data to the WHO within weeks to get the jab approved.