New vaccine offers hope in Africa's malaria battle

"I decided to join the study to get help for the disease," she said.

Dr. Allen Otieno, a 38-year-old pediatrician, said "everybody is afraid" of malaria in the region. He called the new vaccine promising. "As scientists we have great hope that it will reduce the burden of malaria," he said.

Joe Cohen, a top researcher for GlaxoSmithKline, said all the data collected during testing have been encouraging.

The 66-year-old Cohen, who has been working on a malaria vaccine for two decades, said the trial results will be submitted to regulators in 2012, and that a vaccine could be on the market shortly afterward.

No prices have been set for the vaccine, Cohen said, though families in Africa may not have to pay anything for it because the Gates Foundation, UNICEF, WHO and the GAVI Alliance would provide funds.

GlaxoSmithKline "is committed to making sure pricing will never be a barrier to access for this vaccine," Cohen said.

The vaccine has been in development for more than 20 years through the combined efforts of GlaxoSmithKline, the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and others.

"No single person could have ever achieved this," Cohen said. "That's the lesson that should be taken out of the collaboration."

Malaria is caused by a parasite and spreads through a bite from an infected mosquito. The parasite travels quickly to the liver where it matures, enters the bloodstream and causes fever, chills, flu-like symptoms and anemia. The vaccine is designed to attack the parasite before it can infect the liver.

Until now, the main line of defense in preventing the disease has been distribution of bed nets and mosquito spraying.

Jonathan Odro Anyumba, chairman of the board of the Kombewa district hospital, said malaria is a huge burden in this verdant area of Kenya, where many live in mud huts and collect water in plastic jugs from flowing streams.

Families must sleep under nets to protect against the disease, though many don't have any. Even half the beds at his hospital don't have nets, Anyumba said.

"When you visit these areas you'll find that each and every child has malaria. Thirty to 50 percent of the deaths in this community are from malaria," he said. "I think this vaccine is going to be very, very useful."

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