<div><p>The most clinically advanced malaria vaccine so far should be ready for use in three to five years after Phase three trials began in May, researchers have said.</p><p>The vaccine -- known as the RTS,S -- is targeted to be at least 50 percent effective against the severe form of malaria and to last up to one year.</p><p>"We believe and hope that in three to five years from today we will be able to put the vaccine in use," Joe Cohen, the vaccine's co-inventor and a GlaxoSmithKline researcher told AFP on Tuesday.</p><p>Up to 16,000 children aged between six weeks to 17 months in seven African countries -- Burkina Faso Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania -- will be vaccinated.</p><p>"This is a tremendous moment in the fight against malaria and the culmination of more than two decades of research, including 10 years of clinical trials in Africa," said Cohen.</p><p>Malaria is the world's deadliest infectious disease. It kills around 900,000 people every year, mainly children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p>Phase three tests monitor safety and potential side effects and evaluate efficacy on a large scale.</p><p>Results of Phase 2 trials, which were announced last year, showed 53 percent efficacy against clinical malaria in young children.</p><p>If successful, the phase three testing and license of the vaccine would make it a "first generation malaria vaccine that is at least 50 percent effective against severe disease and death and lasts more than one year," said the Malaria Vaccine Initiative.</p><p>The vaccine is primarily intended for infants and children under five who are the most vulnerable to malaria.</p><p>In 2006, the international community set a long-term goal of having by 2025 a malaria vaccine that would be at least 80 percent effective against the less severe forms of the disease and last longer than four years.</p><p>The experts made the vaccine trial announcement during the fifth Multilateral Initiative on Malaria conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.</p><p>Other vaccines are also undergoing trials, but have not reached the advanced Phase three stage.</p><p>The health experts and researchers are also seeking ways to eradicate the disease through vector control such as using long-lasting insecticide bednets and indoor spraying.</p><p>More effective drugs are also being researched to tackle emerging resistance as well as medicines for the less severe but more widespread malaria type -- Plasmodium vivax.</p><p>The Nairobi conference began on Sunday and will close on Friday.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=62646742&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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