Whole-parasite malaria vaccine shows promise in University of Maryland School of Medicine clinical trial

For the first time, a malaria vaccine that uses the entire malaria parasite has proven safe and shown promise to produce a strong immune response in a clinical trial, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center. The vaccine is unique in that it looks like  the entire malaria parasite, while most experimental malaria vaccines consist of just one or at most a few proteins found in the parasite. Researchers found that the vaccine the first whole parasite vaccine to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for clinical trials  could provide better immune responses against malaria when administered. Though malaria has been largely eliminated in much of the developed world, it is still a widespread threat in warm, tropical areas where infected mosquitoes thrive, such as Africa. Malaria, kills nearly one million people and infects 300 million annually worldwide. The condition can be treated with anti-parasite drugs, but can kill anyone who is not immune to the parasite. Children under the age of five succumb at high rates to the neurological and cardiac effects of malaria, particularly in Africa. With this new vaccine many lives can be saved, which will have a dramatic effect on human population in Africa and other places were malaria is found.