SIAYA, Kenya (AP) — Final stages of testing are under way in malaria-plagued Africa on a vaccine that appears to be able to prevent the disease in about 50 percent of children.
If it's found to be safe, it could be on the market in three to five years — the first vaccine against a human parasite.
Tens of millions of Africans are plagued by malaria every year and more than 1 million children die. It's a crippling economic drain that prolongs a cycle of disease and poverty throughout the continent.
Malaria is also prevalent in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America but this vaccine was developed specifically for Africa. Experts say it would still be a historic advancement.
Experts from around the globe are meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, this week as part of the fifth pan-African malaria conference.
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Young boy diagnosed with Malaria awaits treatment at a clinic run by World Vision in Otash refugee camp, South Darfur, Sudan, photo
<<APPHOTO NAI105 (11/02/09)>>
: In this Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 picture a mother watches over her child who is suffering from severe malaria in the Siaya hospital in Western Kenya. Both children are receiving a blood transfusion. A new vaccine being tested here is giving the medical community hope that for the first time it will soon be able to reduce by half the number of African children killed by the mosquito-borne disease every year.
<<APPHOTO NAI111 (11/02/09)>>
: In a photo made Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 a mother holds her baby as she receives a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya.A new vaccine being tested here is giving the medical community hope that for the first time it will soon be able to reduce by half the number of African children killed by the mosquito-borne disease every year.
<<APPHOTO NAI108 (11/02/09)>>
: In a photo made Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 a child suffering from malaria sleeps under a mosquito net while a mother feeds here child, also suffering from malaria, in the Siaya hospital in Western Kenya. A new vaccine being tested here is giving the medical community hope that for the first time it will soon be able to reduce by half the number of African children killed by the mosquito-borne disease every year.
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