Recent news
November 2010
First vaccine trials for widespread malaria strain underway
November 17, 2010 -- The Walter Reed Army Institute for Research (WRAIR) recently launched the first clinical trials for a vaccine against the most widespread strain of malaria, Plasmodium vivax. "What we do here plays a critical, pivotal role in the fight against malaria. Without this model of challenging the human body with malaria, we would be unable to effectively develop and figure out whether a vaccine works or not,” said Col. Christian Ockenhouse, director of the Malaria Vaccine Research Program at WRAIR. He added, "It costs millions of dollars to test any vaccine, and if we can safely eliminate vaccines that don't work and push into further trials those that do show promise, it will save millions of dollars." WRAIR and other institutes at the Department of Defense have been at the forefront of research for vaccines against global health diseases, which service personnel stationed in the developing world experience alongside local communities. "It typically takes 15 to 20 years to develop a new drug or vaccine that goes to market," Ockenhouse said, adding, "But the world doesn't have 15 or 20 years to wait for another malaria vaccine—so anything we can do to rapidly progress this development process is most important.” See the links below for more details.
