Parasites in new malaria vaccine boost effectiveness to 100%

Malaria, typically spread by mosquitoes, kills hundreds of thousands of children and adults a year
Malaria, typically spread by mosquitoes, kills hundreds of thousands of children and adults a year
JIM GATHANY/CDC/REUTERS

An experimental malaria vaccine has shown highly encouraging results that could kick-start the stalled global effort to tackle the disease.

The early-stage trial tested an unusual technique whereby a vaccine containing live malaria parasites is combined with one of two widely used antimalarial drugs, an approach known as chemoprophylaxis vaccination.

The best results came when the vaccine, developed by the American company Sanaria, was combined with a decades-old antimalarial medicine called chloroquine.

All six volunteers who received a high vaccine dose and chloroquine were protected against malaria three months after inoculation.

The results were especially striking, the researchers said, because these volunteers had been deliberately exposed to a South American strain or variant of the malaria parasite that was genetically distant from the African strain