SOS Medical Centers providing health care in African communities

Data from a trial conducted by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the nonprofit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative show that the experimental vaccine cut in half the risk of African children contracting the fatal illness. The trial was held in seven sub-Saharan countries in Africa, where every year malaria wipes out hundreds of thousands of children.

The vaccine prevented malaria in five- to 17-month-olds. Results for babies age six to 12 weeks are expected in a year. The drug maker GSK is aiming to place the vaccine on the market in 2015, if all goes smoothly.

According to AlertNet, the upbeat findings were presented at a recent malaria forum sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists caution that the new vaccine, known as RTS,S or Mosquirix, will help control malaria, not eradicate it. Used together with measures that have already shown success in significantly reducing malaria -- insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying, and anti-malaria drugs -- the vaccine appears to bolster the attack against the disease.

SOS Children's Villages Gives Loving Homes to Disease Orphans

Malaria, like other lethal illnesses, is a scourge across Africa, producing orphaned children and boys and girls without parents to care for them. Working in 44 countries in Africa, SOS Children's Villages provides warm homes, schooling, and medical care to needy children.

SOS has decades of experience nurturing children who themselves have been sick or who have witnessed the loss of their parents to disease. By nursing ill boys and girls back to health and giving them a loving community in which to grow and develop, SOS Children’s Villages carves out a future for children in areas of Africa that are prone to disease and natural disaster.

Through its clinics, SOS also provides disease prevention education and treatment for vulnerable families living near its Children’s Villages.