A HAMPSHIRE university is appealing for volunteers to help end one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

The University of Southampton begins a new malaria vaccine study next month and wants people aged 18-45 to undergo testing.

It is the seventh study by the university over the past decade and its technology has proven so effective it is now being used in Ebola vaccine trials.

Teaming up with University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Oxford, the research team will test three vaccinations on 48 participants over eight weeks.

Volunteers will be bitten by up to five laboratory-reared mosquitoes carrying the disease and if the vaccines are successful malaria will take longer to infect the patients or it will not develop at all.

And those patients unaffected by malaria can return five to seven months later to repeat the process to see how long the vaccine lasts.

The study is led by Prof Saul Faust, professor of paediatric infectious diseases and immunology, who has been involved in every trial.

He said: “The strength of the vaccines and the effectiveness of the combinations we use are getting better each time.

“Progress is being made. Whether this ends up being the final vaccine remains to be seen but the technology is considered good enough to now be used in Ebola vaccine testing.”

The research facility at Southampton is one of only four publicly-funded labs in the UK to have ‘Phase One’ accreditation from the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Prof Faust, pictured below, added: “This is the highest quality standard possible for being able to do trials at an early stage of drug or vaccine development and we achieved it in August.”

Due to the nature of the disease there is a health risk by participating but Prof Faust said medical help was on standby.

He said: “We make it clear that by taking part you are likely to get ill and spend some time being treated in hospital. But the vaccine means some people are not going to be as badly affected.

“They might not get the full symptoms so they need to be studied until the malaria is gone.”

Three rounds of vaccinations are followed by an infection day at Imperial College London, followed by up to three weeks of daily visits to Oxford.

There are 13 more places available on the trial in Southampton.

For more details email uhs.southamptonCRF@nhs.net or call 023 8120 4989.

Trial particpant on the run

SECURITY around the study has been tightened after one malaria-infected participant went missing four years ago.

Matthew Lloyd, pictured, sparked an international search in 2010 and was later found in Holland thanks to information from Daily Echo readers.

It was later revealed he was wanted by police in connection with a sexual assault on a waitress in Howard Road, Shirley.

Daily Echo: Staff nurse Matthew Lloyd has been found guilty of sexual assault
Matthew Lloyd

Prof Faust said: “We were rigorous over who can join before that happened and we are even more rigorous now. We do not allow people to take part unless they fully understand the risks and benefits and we give them blood tests to make sure they are suitable.

“We also make sure participants agree to be fully contactable during the course of the trial.

And we would pick up on any problems now because our participants have to agree to a GP report where they have to answer very detailed health questions.”

Lloyd, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was convicted of sexual assault at Southampton Crown Court in September 2011.