Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Manuel Elkin Patarroyo

Colombian scientist

Date of Birth: 03-Nov-1946

Place of Birth: Ataco, Tolima Department, Colombia

Profession: physician, pathologist, immunologist

Nationality: Colombia

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Manuel Elkin Patarroyo (born November 3, 1946) is a Colombian Professor of Pathology and Immunology who made the world's first attempt to create a synthetic vaccine against a parasite called the protozoa Plasmodium falciparum that causes severe malaria, a disease that causes death (~1.5 million people per year) in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The vaccine candidate, first developed in 1987 in Colombia, was evaluated in clinical trials carried out by the WHO in Gambia, Tanzania and Thailand, and had mixed results.
In 2009, a comprehensive Cochrane review assessed the SPf66 as being not efficacious in Africa and Asia, and as having a low but statistically significant efficacy of 28% in South America.
Today, after more than 33 years of research, there is still however no licensed malaria vaccine.
Researchers and vaccine developers have been working on many approaches to bring forward the availability of a malaria vaccine." More research and clinical trials are required for a universal vaccine to be implemented. Patarroyo is a recipient of the TWAS Prize (1998).