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  • Title: Malaria vaccine offers hope. International / Africa.
    Journal: Malar Wkly; 1995 Apr 03; ():8-9. PubMed ID: 12289094.
    Abstract:
    The World Health Organization (WHO) may soon sign an agreement with the Colombian government to build a plant in Colombia for the mass production of the malaria vaccine SPf66. SPf66 consists of a combination of synthetic peptides. It will eventually be available in Africa, where 90% of all recorded malaria cases occur each year. 1 million of the 1.5-3 million malaria-related deaths each year also occur in Africa. Many of these deaths take place in children. The indirect costs of malaria in Africa is expected to increase from $800 million to $1.8 billion between 1987 and the end of 1995. Based on findings from the various clinical trials in Colombia, Thailand, The Gambia, and Tanzania, WHO's director of Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) claims that, if SPf66 can reduce the malaria incidence rate by 50% and thereby also the malaria-related death rate, the lives of 500,000 children in Africa would be spared. TDR will meet in mid-1996 to sort through all the SPf66 findings and then develop a policy for further development or production and use of SPf66. The price of each SPf66 vaccination should be around $5, comparable with the higher range of costs of other vaccines provided by WHO's Expanded Program of Immunization and UNICEF. At the 1992 WHO summit in Amsterdam, the president of the Congo called for the international community to join forces to eliminate malaria. When it was first tested on humans, in Colombia, the protection rate of SPf66 ranged from 22% to 77%, with the best results among the young and the very old. It has not caused any harmful side effects.
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