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Four African health research centres receive award

18 Nov 2008

Paul Chinnock

Source: Kintampo Health Research Centre (see original article)

Scientists from Ghana’s Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) have formally received the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in recognition of the centre’s contribution towards the development of a vaccine against malaria and its work to improve medical care in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Prince of Asturias Foundation says its awards, of which there are eight categories, are intended to acknowledge scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out internationally by individuals, groups or organisations. The KHRC award was made within the Foundation’s ‘International communications’ category. Other African institutions receiving awards from the Foundation under the same category this year are:

• Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania

• The Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC), Mali

• The Manhiça Health Research Centre, Mozambique.

In making the award, first announced in May this year, the Foundation said: ‘The Jury has taken into consideration the role played by these four centres in encouraging research, achieving an effective vaccine and contributing to improvements in medical care in the countries in which they operate. The work of these organizations in the training of local staff for biomedical research and institutional backing in the fight against malaria has likewise been especially valued by the Jury.’

The four centres have been part of a team working on clinical trials of the RTS,S malaria vaccine, created in 1987 by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals, originally in collaboration with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. In 2005, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a large grant to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to extend the public-private partnership between MVI and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals to develop RTS,S for African children together with prominent African research institutions.

Details of KHRC’s involvement in the RTS,S trials may be found on the centre’s website. Further information about KHRC is also available.

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