Experts Call For Funding For Malaria Vaccines

Malaria experts have called on the US Government to increase funding for malaria programmes focused on developing new antimalarial medications and vaccines.

The experts made the call at a briefing on Capitol Hill which was sponsored by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), PATH and Malaria No More.

More than 3000 scientists, researchers and health experts from all over the world are attending the meeting to discuss issues relating to tropical diseases.

The ASTMH advocates implementation and funding of policies and programmes that seek to reduce, prevent and control infectious tropical diseases.

According to Dr Kent Campbell, the Director of PATH's Malaria Control Programme in Africa, eliminating malaria will take decades and success will not be possible without consistent investment in the development of improved tools for controlling malaria.

“Recent progress has emboldened the malaria community to speak of malaria elimination and eradication, and plans have been developed to make this long-term aspiration a reality,” he said.

Dr Campbell said drug and insecticide resistance was a reality and there was the need for a vaccine that could block infection adding that “if we do not invest in these programmes to develop treatment and prevention, there will be devastating effects on the progress made thus far”.

The experts at the briefing noted that drug treatment for malaria had historically involved identifying and developing new drugs that had multiple decades of effectiveness, only to witness resistance emerging over time.

According to Dr Alan Magill, Director of Experimental Therapeutics at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and chair of Clinical Groups at ASTMH “today, the best drugs we have remaining to treat malaria is the artemisinin-containing combination regimens, which are saving lives every day.

But recent reports from the Thai-Cambodian border show delayed parasite clearance with the artemisinins which may be the first sign of emerging drug resistance”.

The experts called for further funding for research into vaccines that could ultimately block malaria infection.

Currently, hope hangs on RTS,S, the world's most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate which is now in Phase 3 testing.

The trial will involve as many as 16,000 young children and infants and is underway at sites in seven African countries including Ghana.

“This is the final stage of testing in Africa. If all goes well in this trial, RTS,S could be the first-ever malaria vaccine and could save hundreds of thousands of lives” said Dr Patricia W. Njuguna, of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programm in Kenya and a principal investigator in the trial.

“As a paediatrician working near the coast of Kenya, where malaria still persists despite rollout of current prevention methods, I regularly see the tragedy of young children dying of the disease and the grief of parents who couldn't protect them.

My hope is that the international community will be ready to support the availability of this vaccine, if approved, so that the children of Kenya and other African countries will have access to it as soon as possible. There are lives to be saved”.

A partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Dr Tom Monath congratulated the US government for being “a major source of support for malaria research efforts worldwide”.

He, however, said increased funding was needed, particularly for vaccine development.

Source: Daily Graphic - Daily Graphic