Hope as malaria vaccine nears home

Malaria, the disease that causes thousands of death, majority of whom are pregnant women and children below the age of six may soon subside, thanks to the initiative to engage Uganda in the process of implementing a decision to use the malaria vaccine once it is out for use. A US-based development partner, Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) PATH and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals is in the process of engaging top scientists from the Uganda National Council of Science (UNAS) to begin a process of developing a malaria vaccine decision making framework for Uganda which will enable the use of the vaccine.

According to the Secretary General of UNAS, Prof. Justine Epelu Opio, Ugandan scientists from Makerere University College of Health Sciences are currently conducting intervention methods in Iganga District to eradicate the parasite using treated mosquito nets. The trials are being conducted jointly with scientists from Tanzania who have implemented the initiative because results already show that there are incidences of the parasite reduction there.

Malaria is prevalent
“There are a number of countries that are already conducting the malaria vaccine trials but Uganda is not among them. Uganda is rated as one of the countries with a high prevalence of malaria in Africa. UNAS will therefore take the MVI PATH initiative and come up with a frame work that can be used to sensitise the public on benefits of the malaria vaccine,” Prof Epelu said. Dr Antoinette Ba –Ngiz from MVI PATH said trials on the malaria vaccine called RTS,S is currently going on in seven African Countries that represent different transmission settings and these include; Tanzania, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Malawi and Mozambique.

“Recent statistics from World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that malaria kills over 900,000 people each year in the Sub-Saharan Africa with majority of deaths being children under the age of five.
A vaccine would complement and enhance existing measures such as bed nets and indoor residual spraying to fight the parasite,” Dr Antoinette said. Of the one million people who die of malaria worldwide annually, Uganda contributes 100,000. This is probably because as Dr Jane Achan from Makerere University College of Health Sciences says, since Uganda is a land locked country with its topography being occupied by water, forest reserves, game parks and mountains, its temperature favours the breeding of various vectors including the malaria parasite.

The clinical trials were started in 2003 and the scientists are anticipating releasing it by the year 2015 and this is the reason development partners are now engaging various African countries for the implementation of a policy framework for management of the vaccine. The vaccine will be given to children at birth. Dr Achan said the country is affected by all the four malaria parasite species therefore the need for the vaccine.