Promising new malaria vaccine for kids approved in Ghana

Ghana on Thursday became the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine for young children, one that officials hope will offer better protection against the disease that kills hundreds of thousands every year.

Final results from late-stage trials have not yet been published, and the vaccine is under review at the World Health Organization. Preliminary results from early testing of the new vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford, have suggested the vaccine is far more effective than the only malaria vaccine now authorized for use by the WHO.

Late-stage testing of the vaccine still is underway in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania, with results expected later this year.

Results from an earlier trial released last year showed that in children vaccinated in Burkina Faso, the vaccine was up to 80% effective depending how much of an immune-boosting ingredient was included in the shots.

The WHO has already rolled out a pilot program of the world's first authorized malaria vaccine, piloted in three African countries, including Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. But that vaccine, sold by GlaxoSmithKline as Mosquirix, is about 30% effective.

That vaccine "is saving lives" in the three pilot countries and has been delivered to over 1.4 million kids, according to Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman.

Jasarevic said its advisory panel on malaria vaccines is reviewing available information on the new vaccine but is waiting for more data about its safety and efficacy from ongoing trials. "Initial results appear promising," he wrote in an email.

"We would welcome a second malaria vaccine that is safe and efficacious and approved by WHO to complement the roll-out of the first malaria vaccine," he said.

It's not clear how...