On Thursday 29th April 2010, Sukuta Health Centre opened its doors to the community and other key stakeholders in a programme themed ‘Working Together with the Community: Novel Vaccine Studies’.The programme was part of the efforts of the MRC field site in Sukuta to disseminate the findings of the various studies that have taken place at the site. The people, leaders of the community and MRC were brought together to foster a stronger relationship on ways of achieving better health through meaningful participation in future studies.
The Open Day programme attracted more than 200 participants from within and outside The Gambia. The forum featured feedback from MRC scientists on various vaccine studies that have either taken place or are ongoing in Sukuta, or are planned for the near future:

A new TB vaccine
In the search for a new vaccine to reduce the disease burden and death due to tuberculosis, MRC has successfully conducted a phase I study of a new TB vaccine called MVA85A, developed by researchers based in Oxford, UK. The findings showed that the new TB vaccine is safe and produces immune responses in Sukuta children, and does not interfere with responses to other vaccines also given in early infancy. These results provide important information required for further testing of this vaccine for efficacy in protecting against tuberculosis.

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV
An ongoing study is investigating how the human body responds to a novel HIV vaccine (MVA.HIVA) that aims to prevent transmission of HIV from mother-to-child during breastfeeding. This study is the first phase in the evaluation of this vaccine in healthy <1 year old children from Sukuta. Similar studies are also being carried out in Nairobi, Kenya. The group that developed the vaccine based at Oxford University was present at the Open Day to take questions. This study is funded by the EU-European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and includes capacity building elements such as staff training and the renovation of Sukuta Health Centre which took place in 2009.

The search for a malaria vaccine
A novel malaria vaccine trial is soon to commence at Sukuta Health Centre. Malaria is responsible for more than 1 million deaths and between 300 and 500 million clinical cases each year, affecting mainly women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Presently, there is no effective vaccine against malaria parasite, and this trial aims to test the safety and immune response to this candidate vaccine in adults, children and infants. This project is also funded by EDCTP and the developers of the vaccine are based at Oxford University.

MRC wishes to acknowledge the value and importance of the Sukuta community, the local government hospital staff, and the Ministry of Health in working together in order to carry out these important vaccine trials. This is part of the overall global effort to develop safe and effective vaccines against the 3 major killer diseases, malaria, TB and HIV which will save millions of children’s lives.