Malaria vaccine trial begins in Africa

Saturday, May 2, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 34)

By Rebecca Kwei
About 16,000 children aged between six weeks and 17 months in 11 Africa countries will participate in a three-year trial to determine the efficacy of a malaria vaccine in May, this year.
About 1,500 of the participants will be recruited from Kintampo to try the RTS,S vaccine which was created in 1987, while its clinical evaluation began in 1992.
Dr Kwaku Poku Asante of the Kintampo Health Research Centre made this known at a media seminar organised by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) as part of activities to commemorate World Malaria Day.
It was on the sub-theme, “Counting on the media to eradicate malaria”. This year’s world theme is, “Counting Malaria Out”.
It is estimated that there are between 300 million and 500 million clinical cases of malaria per year, with 80 per cent of those cases in Africa. In Ghana, about 4,500 deaths traceable to malaria are recorded annually and 1,500 children under five die from malaria every year, while 60 pregnant women die every year from malaria.
Dr Asante said a phase-two trial of the vaccine to determine the safety and potential side effects was conducted among 2,022 children between one and four years in Mozambique recently and it demonstrated a 30 per cent efficacy against clinical disease, 45 per cent efficacy against infection and 58 per cent efficacy against severe disease.
According to Dr Asante, in the recent past other trials on the vaccine had been undertaken in children in Tanzania, Gabon and Ghana and it had been found to be safe.
In another presentation, Dr Daniel Ansong of the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) said the vaccine was the most clinically advanced candidate in the world and it had the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives across Africa.
He noted that the vaccine would add on to other interventions currently being used and that it would make a positive impact on the economy and the capacity of our healthcare systems.
The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr Alex Dodoo, said there was an urgent need for rigorous data to inform malaria policy in Africa.
In view of that, he said, a new project dubbed the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies (INESS) that would monitor Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) in real life settings in Africa to provide information and data to drive malaria policy was in the offing.
The countries involved in the project are Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. It will, however, start in Ghana and Tanzania.
In Ghana, the studies will be undertaken at three sites, namely, Dodowa, Kintampo and Navrongo, where the participants will be monitored when given ACTs.
The Executive Secretary of AMMREN, Mrs Charity Binka, said the media were the gatekeepers of every society and they had a critical role to play in getting the malaria story out.
Therefore, she said, the media must not be left out in counting malaria out of the world, adding, “It is only through the active participation of the media in malaria eradication efforts that the menace can be conquered.”
A programme officer of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Mr James Frimpong, said his organisation would, among others, continue to ensure consistent use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and scale up indoor residual spraying to 45 districts with support from the global fund.
Additionally, there was the need to improve diagnosis and that would be done with the introduction of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits and strengthening laboratory microscopy services, he said.