New Malaria Vaccine Hailed as 'World-Changing'

The world's first malaria vaccine was rolled out last year, after more than a century of effort to develop immunizations that would work against the tricky disease, which changes forms inside the body. Now, a team from the University of Oxford says it has developed another vaccine that could be even better. "The potential achievement that this vaccine could have if it's rolled out could be really world-changing," one of the scientists tells the BBC. The co-creator of the vaccine tells the Guardian he believes this is "the best [malaria] vaccine yet." The Malaria No More nonprofit says that with this drug, the world could see an end to children dying from malaria "in our lifetimes."

Initial trials showed that three initial doses of the vaccine, plus a booster a year later, offered 80% effectiveness. The vaccine is also cheap to produce, and scientists say it can be manufactured on a larger scale—there's already a deal in place to make more than 100 million doses a year. Scientists will start the process of getting it approved within weeks, with results of a larger trial expected by the end of the year. Shots are expected to start going in arms by the end of next year, but experts warn funding is still needed to make that happen. The mosquito-borne illness kills more than 400,000 people a year, most of them infants and children. (More malaria stories.)