Many lives may soon be saved thanks to the world’s first malaria vaccine, which could be approved for use in the near future. [s]The Times[/s] reports that pharmaceutical company [b]Glaxo-SmithKline[/b] has submitted papers to the [b]European Medicines Agency[/b], asking it to approve the new vaccine. ‘It’s a new door for science. We have never been here before,’ said Dr Allan Pamba, [b]GSK’s East African[/b] affairs spokesperson. GSK said the vaccine took 30 years to develop. GSK was given $200m in funding to develop it by the [b]PATH[/b] vaccine initiative funded by the [b]Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation[/b]. The report says the vaccine does not offer complete protection from malaria but reduces the risk for children aged 17 months to five years old.
A key medical aid group has warned that malaria is now the leading killer in the land-locked [b]Central African Republic[/b], reports [s]Reuters Health[/s]. [b]Doctors Without Borders[/b] said it had seen a jump in cases in CAR, where violence between Christian militia and Muslim rebels has killed thousands of people and forced a million from their homes.
[link url=http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2014/07/25/malaria-vaccine-opens-a-new-door-for-science]Full report in The Times[/link]
[link url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/us-centralafrica-malaria-un-idUSKBN0FT2R020140724]Full Reuters Health report[/link]