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A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 18 January 2020
1st malaria vaccine tried out in babies in 3 African nations

By CARA ANNA and LAU- cine and Hygiene.
RAN NEERGAARD For now, only babies in
Associated Press parts of Malawi, Kenya
TOMALI, Malawi (AP) — A and Ghana are eligible
pinch in the leg, a squeal for the Mosquirix vaccine.
and a trickle of tears. One After the vaccine was ap-
baby after another in Ma- proved in 2015, the World
lawi is getting the first and Health Organization said it
only vaccine against ma- first wanted a pilot roll-out
laria, one of history's dead- to see how well it worked
liest and most stubborn of in a few countries — in real-
diseases. The southern Af- world conditions — before
rican nation is rolling out recommending that the
the shots in an unusual pilot vaccine be given more
program along with Kenya widely across Africa.
and Ghana. Unlike estab- "Everyone is looking forward
lished vaccines that offer to getting it," said Temwa
near-complete protection, Mzengeza, who oversees
this new one is only about Malawi's vaccine pro-
40% effective. But experts grams. Those eager for the
say it's worth a try as prog- shots include her husband,
ress against malaria stalls: whom she had to stop from
Resistance to treatment trying to get them, she said.
is growing and the global In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, health officials prepare to vaccine residents of the Mzengeza used to come
drop in cases has leveled Malawi village of Migowi, where young children become test subjects for the world's first vaccine down with malaria several
off. With the vaccine, the against malaria. Babies in three African nations are getting the first and only vaccine for malaria times a year until she start-
in a pilot program.
hope is to help small chil- Associated Press ed following her own ad-
dren through the most dan- vice to sleep under a net
gerous period of their lives. round the homes of brick first thought was "protec- debilitating symptoms. At every night. Unlike many
Spread by mosquito bites, and thatch and line the dirt tion is here." Health workers that point, treatment re- other kinds of infections,
malaria kills more than roads through tea planta- explained, however, that quires medicines that kill people can get malaria re-
400,000 people every year, tions or fields of maize and the vaccine is not meant to the parasites. peatedly, building up only
two-thirds of them under 5 sugar cane. replace antimalarial drugs Mosquirix uses a piece of a partial immunity.
and most in Africa. In the village of Tomali, the or the insecticide-treated the parasite — a protein In the pilot program that
Seven-month-old Char- nearest health clinic is a bed net she unfolds every found only on sporozo- began last year, 360,000
ity Nangware received a two-hour bike ride away. night as the sun sets and ites' surface — in hopes of children in the three coun-
shot on a rainy December The longer it takes to get mosquitoes rise from the blocking the liver stage of tries are meant to be vac-
day at a health clinic in care, the more danger- shadows. infection. When a vacci- cinated annually. The first
the town of Migowi. She ous malaria can be. Teams "We even take our eve- nated child is bitten, the im- dose is given at about age
watched curiously as the from the clinic offer basic ning meals inside the net mune system should recog- 5 months and the final,
needle slid into her thigh, medical care during vis- to avoid mosquitoes," she nize the parasite and start fourth booster near the
then twisted up her face its once or twice a month, said. making antibodies against child's second birthday.
with a howl. bringing the malaria shot It took three decades of it. Experts say it is too early to
"I'm very excited about and other vaccines in por- research to develop the Scientists also are search- know how well the vaccine
this," said her mother, Esther table coolers. new vaccine, which works ing for next-generation al- is working. They're watch-
Gonjani, who herself gets Treating malaria takes up a against the most com- ternatives. In the pipeline ing for malaria deaths, se-
malaria's aches, chills and good portion of their time mon and deadly of the is an experimental vac- vere infections and cases
fever at least once a year during the rainy season, ac- five parasite species that cine made of whole ma- of meningitis, something
and loses a week of field cording to Daisy Chikonde, cause malaria. The para- laria parasites dissected reported during studies but
work when one of her chil- a local health worker. site's complex life cycle is a from mosquitoes' salivary not definitively linked to
dren is ill. "They explained it "If this vaccine works, it will huge challenge. It chang- glands but weakened so the vaccine. "To do some-
wasn't perfect, but I feel se- reduce the burden," she es forms in different stages they won't make people thing completely new for
cure it will relieve the pain." said. of infection and is far hard- sick. Sanaria Inc. has been malaria is exciting," said re-
There is little escaping ma- Resident Doriga Ephrem er to target than germs. testing its vaccine in adults, searcher Don Mathanga,
laria -- "malungo" in the lo- proudly said her 5-month- "We don't have any vac- and is planning a large, who is leading the evalua-
cal Chichewa language old daughter, Grace, didn't cines against parasites in late-stage study in Equato- tion in Malawi.
-- especially during the cry when she got the ma- routine use. This is unchart- rial Guinea's Bioko Island. The rainy season has
five-month rainy season. laria shot. ed territory," said Ashley And the U.S. National Insti- brought new challenges,
Stagnant puddles, where When she heard about the Birkett, who directs PATH's tutes of Health soon will start making some rural roads
mosquitoes breed, sur- vaccine, Ephrem said her Malaria Vaccine Initiative, initial tests of whether in- impassable and compli-
a nonprofit that helped jecting people periodically cating efforts to track down
drugmaker GlaxoSmith- with lab-made antibod- children due for a shot. So
Kline develop the shot, ies, rather than depend- far in Malawi, the first dose
brand-named Mosquirix. ing on the immune system reached about half of the
The bite of an infected to make them, could offer children targeted, about
mosquito sends immature temporary protection dur- 35,000. That dropped to
parasites called sporozo- ing malaria season. Think of 26,000 for the second dose
ites into the bloodstream. If them as "potentially short- and 20,000 for the third.
they reach the liver, they'll term vaccines," NIH's Dr. That's not surprising for a
mature and multiply be- Robert Seder told a recent new vaccine, Mzengeza
fore spewing back into the meeting of the American said. "It will pick up with
blood to cause malaria's Society of Tropical Medi- time."q