Kintampo, (B/A), Jan. 8, GNA - A health expert announced that scientists have targeted 2011, for the introduction of RTS,S (rpt RTS,S) malaria vaccine, which was currently going through clinical trials, for use in Ghana and across Africa to control malaria.

Dr Seth Owusu-Agyei, Director of the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) in the Brong Ahafo Region, said Ghana was one of six African countries currently taking part in the phase two trials of the vaccine.

He was speaking during an interaction with journalists drawn from the African Media and Malaria Research Network, to acquaint themselves with the trials in the region, at the weekend.

Dr Owusu-Agyei stressed that if the trials prove successful after further scientific research, it was expected that by 2011, the RTS,S would be available for use in Ghana and across Africa.

He said the challenge, however, was how to make the vaccine available for use at a lower cost since millions of dollars were being spent on the trials by various collaborators including the drug company, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in Belgium, which developed the vaccine. Dr Owusu-Agyei said the trials were being conducted under the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance (MCTA), an African-led institution set up to conduct research into malaria.

He announced that the Kintampo Health Research Centre and the Kumasi Center For Collaborative Research at Agogo in the Ashanti Region, were conducting the trials on 540 children aged between five and 17 months, and it would last for 20 months.

Dr Owusu-Agyei said by 2010, trials would be expanded to cover more children to enable research scientists gather enough information required for licensing by regulatory bodies for the use of the vaccine.

The research, which began in September, last year, in Ghana, was aimed at primarily assessing the safety of the vaccine. It is expected that more children would be tested in the phase three trial, when the efficacy of the vaccine would be tested by 2008 if the phase two trial, becomes successful. MCTA, funded with 17-million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is made up of scientists within and outside Africa.

Eight MCTA sites in six African countries, are involved in the phase two trials. The countries are Ghana, Mozambique, Gabon, Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania.

A version of RTS,S vaccine was tested on 100 adult volunteers in the United States and 85 adults in Kenya and found to be safe. It has already been administered on about 2000 children aged one to four years in Mozambique, and the results indicated that 18 months after the children were vaccinated, the risk of getting malaria was lowered by one third, and the risk of severe malaria reduced by about one half. Results also showed that the protective effect of the malaria vaccine did not wane 24 months after the vaccine was administered. The RTS,S vaccine was created in 1987 and developed by GlaxoSmithKline, (GSK) Biologicals, vaccine manufacturers in Belgium.