Malaria N° 9 - Subject N° 8

MALARIA VACCINES: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
W.L. Kilama

SUMMARY
For Sub-Sahara Africa, Malaria is «public health enemy number one». When the malaria problem is worsening, available tools such as antimalarial drugs and vectors control measures are turning blunt. There is therefore need for new substainable tools, Malaria vaccines are advocated as promissing now malaria control tools.

The paper briefly reviews past experiences, including immunity from natural infections, irradiated sporozoite challenges, Purified antigens, synthetic peptides, and plasmid DNA vaccines. Some experiences from preclinical and clinical trials of pre-erythrocitic, transmission blocking, and asexual blood stage vaccines is reported. The rationale and objectives of an ongoing trial in Tanzania is reviewed.

The paper will end by describing the African Malaria Vaccine Testing Network, its rationale, past achievements, Planned activities, and the current AMVTN-CC membership.