Tanzania is the first country in Africa where a PfSPZ malaria vaccine will be tested to check whether it provides protection against more different strains of the parasite than that used in the preparation of the vaccine and how it performs in various age groups.
The first trials will be carried out at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) starting next month. The results of a phase one clinical trial of the PfSPZ vaccine developed by a US company, Sanaria, published last week show that the vaccine provided complete protection against malaria in people who were exposed to Plasmodium falciparum parasites. Plasmodium falciparum is the malaria parasite that causes more than 600,000 deaths annually.
“We want to see if the results in the US can be replicated in Africa where malaria is more prevalent and if we can improve protection by increasing the dose. Instead of a three-month follow up that was done in the US, we will do it for one year.
We will run the study in Bagamoyo,” the Executive Director of IHI Dr Salim Abdulla said on Thursday. He said that Sanaria approached IHI last year and the Institute agreed to do the first trial in Africa.
IHI has one of the most advanced clinical trials facilities in the continent at its Bagamoyo branch where the tests will be conducted. The study will involve 54 individuals, according to Dr Abdulla.
The individuals, aged between 18 and 35, have already been registered and trials are scheduled to begin in mid- September. Scientists had previously been skeptical of the vaccine because producing it required overcoming massive logistical hurdles.
The vaccine is called PfSPZ because it is made from sporozoites (SPZ), a stage in the life cycle of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum Pf uses a weakened form of the whole parasite to invoke an immune response.
Source Tanzania Daily News
