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What is Malaria?

Malaria is the biggest single infectious killer of children in the world, causing 2 to 3 million deaths per year. Malaria is caused by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito that is infected by the Plasmodium parasite. A prestigious research group of 17 qualified scientists and professors lead by Professor Adrian Hill of the University of Oxford have taken it upon themselves to come up with effective vaccines for malaria in order to eradicate this rapidly encroaching killer. But they need your help.

How You Can Help: Human Clinical Trials

In order to test the existing vaccines, the research group must perform human clinical trials. First, they inject volunteers with two vaccines, one to "prime" the immune system and the next to "boost" the immune response system. Then volunteers are injected with a fully drug-safe strain of malaria called falciparum malaria. The strain used is a laboratory strain and is 100% curable. After these volunteers are exposed to the disease, they are kept under close watch, visiting the clinic twice a day. Every day, the clinic takes a blood sample from each volunteer and tests it for malaria. The moment any trace of malaria is detected, the volunteer is immediately treated with the anti-malarial and 100% effective drug chloroquine. The purpose of these trials is to discover whether the vaccinations that the volunteers receive provide partial or complete protection against malaria. The information that the research group gains from each patient is very precious and may help to prevent millions of deaths each year.

Volunteer Requirements

To take part in this study, you must be between the ages of 18 and 45 years and have never contracted malaria before. You must live in the Oxford area, and all volunteers are compensated for the time and traveling expenses. With your bravery, millions of children can be saved from malaria.

Where You Begin

Visit http://www.malaria-vaccines.org.uk/10.shtml
or e-mail: malaria@well.ox.ac.uk