The Oxford Vaccine Group is paying individuals over £5,000 to contract malaria for seven months in an attempt to develop a vaccine for relapse infections. Participants will travel to the Radboud Medical Centre in the Netherlands with the Oxford study team, where they will be exposed to the virus under controlled conditions, and then monitored for six months.
Participants are required to be healthy and aged 18-45 and will be paid approximately £5,270 – the figure dependent upon the number of relapse infections they experience. Participants will be reimbursed for their “time, inconvenience, and travel”. The study involves visits over a period of seven and a half months and annual email questionnaires over the following four years.
The study, named BIO-006, aims to investigate new methods for testing vaccines for relapsing malaria infections. Once the parasites are detected in participants’ blood, they will be given standard anti-malaria medication. After initial infection, participants will return to Oxford, and then will have fortnightly check-ups and 24/7 medical support for half a year.
Malaria can be a life-threatening disease, mostly found in tropical countries, but it is preventable and curable. It’s most prevalent in the WHO African Region, where 94% of malaria cases and 95% of malaria deaths occur globally. The Oxford Vaccine Group spends most of its time testing out new vaccines on illnesses such as typhoid, seasonal influenza, and salmonella. Most notably, they are known for creating the Oxford–Astra Zeneca Covid–19 vaccine in 2020.
The chief investigator for the clinical trial, Professor Angela Minassian, told BBC News that this study was “the first of its kind” in regard to introducing malaria infections into healthy volunteers. Minassian explained that 80% of cases of the most common forms of malaria come from relapsing infections, making this an important step in the world of vaccine studies.
