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Efficacy of RTS,S malaria vaccine declines over seven years

Research

Results from a long-term phase II study of the malaria vaccine RTS,S show that its efficacy falls over time, and that this decline is fastest in children living in areas with higher than average rates of malaria.

Genes that protect african children from developing malaria identified © Kateryna Kon - Shutterstock

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that the benefits of the vaccine are likely to vary across different populations and highlight the need for more research to determine the most effective way of using RTS,S, which last year became the first ever malaria vaccine to receive a green light from the European Medicines Agency.

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