One of the leading goals of Gates' vaccine initiative is to get the hepatitis B vaccine into even wider use in the developing world and at an even lower cost. Ebrima Bah, a native Gambian who is in charge of the MRC's hepatitis B study, said nearly everyone in the region used to get hepatitis B during childhood. The infection is blamed for West Africa's high rates of liver disease and liver cancer. It's a devastating disease. There is no treatment.
Prevention is the only hope.
The study continues today, he said, even though all Gambian children receive the vaccine. The goal now is to see if, by preventing hepatitis B infection, the rate of liver cancer will also come down. Rice workers are caught in a downpour as they return from the fields. The rainy season is aslo the season for planting - and disease. Dr. Amanda Leach is one of the principal investigators in a study that is testing a new pneumococcal vaccine in about 40,000 children in the country's upper river and central regions.