Malaria vaccine gets approval from European regulators
Latest malaria vaccine gets approved by European regulators for use in countries plagued by Plasmodium infected mosquitoes
“This is the first time ever that a Malaria vaccine has got to the point of being reviewed by a regulatory authority, so this is a big step forward. What happens next is that the assessment from the EMA will be reviewed by WHO in October. And we will look at the vaccine from the point of view of public health. And what we will need to do is to look at issues such as the feasibility of using this vaccine in field situations in developing countries. We need to look at its affordability and its cost effectiveness” declared Gregory Hartl, spokesman of the World Health Organization, on Friday, 24th of July, at the UN Geneva conference.
WHO available statistics show that there were nearly 200 million cases of malaria in 2013 and approximately 600.000 deaths. In Africa, malaria kills one child a minute. Due to very high incidence and mortality rates, European Medicines Agency had adopted a “positive scientific opinion” for the vaccine Mosquirix for use outside the European Union, in addition to the existing malaria control tools.
In the future, the study will continue analysing further efficacy and safety results following immunization of the participants, because a decrease in clinical cases of malaria may have a major public health impact.
Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140729142030.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/f599296bc5553aefb29e66313e682e71.htm
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51493#.Vbdw27bhntQ
