New Vaccine Gives Hope to Efforts to Combat Malaria in African Children

Some 800,000 people die from malaria each year. Most of the deaths occur among small children in sub-Saharan Africa. But early test results of a new vaccine show considerable promise. The vaccine was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill participated in the clinical trial in Lilongwe, Malawi. There, 1,600 children were given the vaccine. The results showed that children between 5 and 17 months were 56 percent less likely to contract clinical malaria and 47 percent less likely to get severe malaria.

“Many have resigned themselves to malaria being a fact of life in Africa,” notes Francis Martinson, co-principal investigator and country director of the UNC project in Malawi. “This need not be the case.”

Further testing on the long-term preventive effects of the vaccine and the possible side effects will be conducted and monitored for the next several years. But the early results offer a great deal of hope.

The results were published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Three African Americans Who Have Been Appointed to Diversity Posts in Higher Education

Terrence Mitchell was appointed executive director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania. Faye Belgrave has been named vice president and chief diversity officer at Virginia Commonwealth University and Tammy Bennett is the inaugural vice president for inclusive excellence in philanthropy at the University of Cincinnati Foundation.

Federal Government Calls on States to End Funding Disparities at Black Land-Grant Universities

The federal government sent letters to 16 governors emphasizing the over $12 billion disparity in funding between land-grant Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and their non-HBCU land-grant peers in their states. Unequitable appropriated funding of the 1890 institutions in the states ranges from $172 million to $2.1 billion.

A Trio of Black Scholars in New Faculty Roles at Universities

The City College of New York has appointed Jervette R. Ward as director of the Black Studies Program. Scotti Branton is a new assistant professor of communication at the University of Arkansas, and professor Danille Taylor was appointed director of the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum.

Shaw University to Expand Its Presence to Research Triangle Park

The collaboration will secure Shaw University a dedicated office space within Frontier RTP innovation campus, located in the heart of the city's new vibrant downtown area. The space will include private offices and an administrative area dedicated to Shaw University, as well as classroom space.

Featured Jobs