LITTLE ROCK — An experimental malaria vaccine carries the promise to control, and eventually eradicate, a disease that globally kills nearly a million people, most of them young children in Africa.
Results from a trial involving 15,000 newborns and babies in seven African countries found that the vaccine prevented the disease in about half of the children. It reduced the risk of getting the most serious, life-threatening form of the disease by more than a third.
The significance of arguably moderate results should not be lost on a public used to nearly 100 percent prevention rates-for example, vaccines for polio, chickenpox and measles. But signs from the malaria trial are encouraging because they mean the vaccine has the potential to avert tens of millions of cases of malaria in children. Global-disease specialists and others who work in the developing countries where malaria sickens more than 200 million annually are right to view the discovery as a significant game-changer in global health and international development efforts.
Malaria isn’t just a killer. It is a costly scourge in poor countries, where the disease accounts for 40 percent of medical costs, up to half of all hospitalizations and 60 percent of all visits to health clinics.
We don’t see malaria much in the U.S. and other developed parts of the world, but a global perspective sheds a sobering light: Half the world’s population lives in places where malaria is common. In Africa, it is the leading cause of death among children younger than 5.
The Gates Foundation, which has done much to boost global-health efforts, has committed $1.75 billion to battling malaria.
More than just money stands in the way of eradicating malaria. Entire health systems must be built in countries without them and international leaders, particularly in poor countries, must demonstrate political commitment to fighting as hard against this disease as the Gates Foundation.
Progress on a vaccine, coupled with advances in bed nets and mosquito repellents, boosts efforts tremendously.
Editorial, Pages 18 on 10/29/2011