After four years of experiments, The RTS, S is effective for the prevention of malaria, thanks to the team with the Spanish Pedro Alonso.
Against all odds, the world has today of the RTS, S malaria, reducing the risk of suffering more than 50% in babies of five and up to 17 months, more likely to acquire the disease. This is good news for Africa, currently mired in a continuum of bad news about the very serious food crisis in the Horn of Africa. It is estimated that around 800,000 people a year die from the disease, mostly in the countries south of Sahara.
Malaria: weakening the resistance of a disease, “insecticide”
The good news is twofold when we consider that, until recently, still believed that vaccines were ineffective in Malaria, A disease transmitted by an infected insect (a parasite) currently has no cure, though sometimes think otherwise. However, we speak of a serious condition and high mortality. It is estimated that half of the total population exposed malaria, especially in Africa, Latin America and southern Asia, although there have been cases up in Greece. More than 200 million sick annually and many do not get saved, especially children.
Although the experiment has yet to follow some stage, phase III trial (the last before marketing the product) figures speak for up to half of cases of infection prevented. This work, conducted in 11 African countries and more than 15,000 children, and “showed signs” in the previous phase, Phase II, with similar results on a smaller scale. It was precisely at this stage in the Spanish speaking Pedro Alonso, considered one of the main drivers of the clinical development of this vaccine.
The next steps in the beginning of the end of malaria
The study, published in the journal The New England Journal of Medicine, has yet to achieve other goals before having a “green light”. The first and perhaps most difficult, is to test the efficacy of the vaccine in time (for which data are collected for two years). Until then (and in 2013) the World Health Organization (WHO) prefers to be cautious with good results, since it is impossible to predict the duration of protection in a disease like malaria. In 2014, depending on these new findings, WHO will conduct a final evaluation, at which point definitely know the varying success of this vaccine.
Another of the objectives to be achieved is the same efficacy in infants younger age (a few semanasde life) and increase the number of doses injected to observe the effect, is expected to be positive.
For now, the CEO of GSK (the laboratory responsible for the vaccine) has said that the drug will be marketed at the lowest possible price (supposedly only 5% more in price over the cost of manufacture) and has proposed collaboration with other organizations and even the production of the product in countries Africa. We must wait for the marketing of the vaccine to see how much truth is there and how much marketing in these statements.