Tanzania - Malaria
(13 Feb 1994) Scientists working with a special Tropical Disease programme have overcome two of the biggest hurdles in the development of a vaccine for malaria. The disease kills up to three million people in Africa every year; one million are children under five. The vaccine, "SPf66", has passed initial human trials and is now undergoing important tests in several locations around the world including the Tanzanian village of Kilombero. Developed by Colombian scientist Manuel Patarroyo, the drug bolsters the immune system with no known side-effects. Despite more than 100 years of research it's the closest scientists have come to a vaccine. The trial at Kilombero is to find out if the vaccine administered en-masse reduces the the number of attacks. Results are expected in October. If successful scientists hope a vaccine could be available for world-wide distribution by 1998. Malaria has been controlled in many parts of the globe by insecticides or by destroying the habitats of malaria-carrying mosquitoes but the measures have not been as practical, or as cost-effective, across much of Africa, Latin America and Asia. Worldwide there are 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria each year; 90 percent of them in Africa. The average person in Kilombero is bitten by malaria-carrying mosquitoes 300 times a year and two-thirds of the population is infected at any one time. While most adults have developed some immunity most children haven't. The project is jointly sponsored by the U.N. Development Programme, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation. SHOWS KILOMBERO, TANZANIA, RECENT: tanzanian villagers walking along road mother and child registering at bush clinic cu mother registering child at clinic official passing vaccine to doctor ws table at bush clinic where children are immunized cu child being immunized pan from nurse to hospital beds cu child on hospital bed ws doctor treating small child cu small child 1.00 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
