Carlota Dobaño

The RH5.1/Matrix-M vaccine is effective and safe against malaria, according to a phase 2b clinical trial in infants in Burkina Faso published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Two other vaccines are already approved against malaria, a disease caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, but this one acts at a different stage of the disease: when the malaria parasite is present in the blood. The other two vaccines attack the parasite when reaches the liver.

In a clinical trial of nearly 5,000 children aged 5-36 months, a new malaria vaccine - called R21/MatrixM - reduced symptomatic cases by 68-75% over the following year. According to the authors, the vaccine will be inexpensive and could contribute to a substantial reduction in malaria suffering and deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. The results of the phase 3 trial are published in The Lancet.