According to a study, new and experimental malaria vaccine was found to offer durable protection in human trials. A small group of healthy people were protected from infection for more than one year following immunization. The experimental vaccine named PfSPZ Vaccine was developed by Sanaria, a US-based pharmaceutical company.

Robert Seder from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the principal investigator of the trial, said, "It is now clear that administering the PfSPZ Vaccine intravenously confers long-term, sterile protection in a small number of participants, which has not been achieved with other current vaccine approaches."

The PfSPZ Vaccine is composed of live, but weakened P. falciparum sporozoites. The vaccine earlier shown protection three weeks after immunization. The current study was designed to assess the maximum time period for the vaccine to remain effective I.e.. Between five months and a year.

The clinical evaluation of the vaccine was done at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore by the NIAID researchers and collaborators. Researchers evaluated the immunization by exposing willing healthy adults to the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum (P falciparum) in a controlled setting.

It was found by the researchers that the vaccine offered protection from malaria for over an year in 55% people who did not had malaria infection earlier.

- Sumana