Gabrielle Fitzgerald of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is on the ground in Tanzania with Dr. Margaret Chan, Mr. Ray Chambers, and Dr. Tachi Yamada. She reports back on their second day:

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan greets a mother and her child in the pediatric ward of the Bagamoyo District Clinic, where the Ifakara Health Institute is testing a promising new malaria vaccine.

A one-hour drive from Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, is home to stunning crystal-clear water and white sand beaches, and also much history. It was an ancient slave-trading center and the port of disembarkation for American journalist Henry Stanley as he set off to search for British explorer David Livingstone.

Today, Bagamayo is home to a cutting-edge facility, the Bagamoyo Research and Training Center of the Ifakara Health Institute. Salim Abdulla, the impressive doctor who founded the center, gave the delegation a tour of the campus, and described how their medical research is fully integrated in to the district health system – meaning local residents can participate in tests of new medications at their village hospital.
We visited the 16-bed pediatric ward, where we were surprised to see three empty beds. Dr. Abdulla told us that 57% of the homes in the area own nets, and they have seen a decrease in the numbers of children coming to the hospital with malaria.

One of the most exciting activities currently underway at Bagamoyo is a trial of a new malaria vaccine for young children through a partnership of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, GlaxoSmithKline and the Ifakara Health Institute. Bagamoyo is one of 11 sites across Africa where the vaccine is being tested. The first child was immunized in May, and the trial will eventually enroll 800 children to test this promising new vaccine. Early data shows that it will protect at least 60% of the vaccinated children from malaria.

Learn more about the RTS,S vaccine here.

Learn more about malaria in Tanzania here.

-Gabrielle Fitzgerald