New Vaccine Proves Promising Against Malaria, Hepatitis B
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From Times staff and wire reports
An experimental new vaccine is showing promise against malaria, which claims 2.7 million lives annually and has proved to be an exceptionally difficult target for vaccines. Scientists from SmithKline Beecham Biologicals have created a new vaccine that combines proteins from the parasite that causes malaria and from the hepatitis B virus. If it works, it will protect against both diseases.
Dr. Jose A. Stoute and his colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the vaccine was 80% effective in a test on 46 volunteers who received three doses and were then bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes.
