Title
Acceptability of a herd immunity-focused, transmission-blocking malaria vaccine in malaria-endemic communities in the Peruvian Amazon: An exploratory study
Date Issued
27 April 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
BioMed Central Ltd.
Abstract
Background: A transmission-blocking vaccine (TBV) to prevent malaria-infected humans from infecting mosquitoes has been increasingly considered as a tool for malaria control and elimination. This study tested the hypothesis that a malaria TBV would be acceptable among residents of a malaria-hypoendemic region. Methods: The study was carried out in six Spanish-speaking rural villages in the Department of Loreto in the Peruvian Amazon. These villages comprise a cohort of 430 households associated with the Peru-Brazil International Centre for Excellence in Malaria Research. Individuals from one-third (143) of enrolled households in an ongoing longitudinal, prospective cohort study in 6 communities in Loreto, Peru, were randomly selected to participate by answering a pre-validated questionnaire. Results: All 143 participants expressed desire for a malaria vaccine in general; only 1 (0.7%) expressed unwillingness to receive a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine. Injection was considered most acceptable for adults (97.2%); for children drops in the mouth were preferred (96.8%). Acceptability waned marginally with the prospect of multiple injections (83.8%) and different projected efficacies at 70 and 50% (90.1 and 71.8%, respectively). Respondents demonstrated clear understanding that the vaccine was for community, rather than personal, protection against malaria infection. Discussion: In this setting of the Peruvian Amazon, a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine was found to be almost universally acceptable. This study is the first to report that residents of a malaria-endemic region have been queried regarding a malaria vaccine strategy that policy-makers in the industrialized world often dismiss as altruistic.
Volume
17
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Inmunología
Parasitología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85046295049
PubMed ID
Source
Malaria Journal
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by United States Public Health Service Grants U19AI089681, D43TW007120, R01AI067727, and K24AI068903 (JMV), all from the US National Institutes of Health.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus