We're pretty hopeful the vaccine will be effective at preventing malaria Professor Adrian Hill, Oxford University Professor Adrian Hill, from the university's department of medicine, said the vaccine, based on fragments of the malaria parasite's own DNA, was the first to target the disease once it had entered the body's cells. Previous vaccines against the disease, which is responsible for a quarter of all child deaths in Africa, have only been able to attack the parasite before it enters cells. We are using a purified preparation of DNA, which is a gene, and that gene makes a tiny part of the malaria parasite when it is used as a vaccine. The Oxford team says tests of the vaccine on British volunteers deliberately infected with malaria have already been undertaken. Professor Hill said if the Gambia trials were also a success, the vaccine could become available within five to 10 years.
Malaria kills up to two million people each year.
The mosquito-borne disease causes high fever, muscle stiffness and sweating. It is the most prevalent tropical disease in the world. Drugs are used to treat victims but climate change, social instability and increased resistance to pesticides and treatments have hampered the battle against the illness.