The clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine among African babies has shown promising results.

The vaccine by Britain-based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been in development and trials for 20 years.

The jab presently known as RTS,S and tentatively brand-named Mosquirix was tested in about 214 infants in Mozambique where malaria is common.

The risk of infants catching malaria reduced by 65 percent three months after the vaccine was administered, reported the online edition of BBC News.

'We have plenty of vaccines against viruses and bacteria but this would be the first vaccine against a parasitic infection in humans,' Joe Cohen, a GlaxoSmithKline scientist who has spent 20 years on the project, said.

The scientists are now going to conduct a bigger trial, which will begin next year in 10 sites across sub-Saharan Africa and involve 10,000 children. If successful, the vaccine will be licensed in 2011.

It would mark a hugely significant step forward in the fight against malaria.

Malaria is caused by a parasite called plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bite of infected mosquitoes.

More than one million people die of malaria every year, mostly infants, young children and pregnant women and most of them are in Africa although the disease also affects Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Europe.

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