Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) announced Tuesday successful results from its initial clinical trials of a vaccine against schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever because snails can serve as carriers.

According to Fiocruz, the vaccine was deemed "safe and capable of inducing immunity to the disease" that affects 200 million people worldwide, especially in poorer regions of Asia, Africa and South America.

Schistosomiasis, considered the world's second most devastating parasitic infection after malaria, is rarely fatal, but often chronic, damaging internal organs such as the liver, bladder and kidneys, and impairing growth in children.

"This innovation puts Brazil at the forefront of knowledge in a field of high technological complexity," said chief researcher Miriam Tendler.

Fiocruz Director Tania Araujo-Jorge stressed the importance of the discovery, saying Fiocruz is "proud of making history" in science.

"It is the world's first vaccine against a parasitic disease," she said, adding the trials underscored "Fiocruz's capability."

Fiocruz first started researching schistosomiasis in 1975, gaining a preliminary patent in the 1990s. Clinical trials for the vaccine began in May 2011 and large-scale testing will be undertaken in Brazil and Africa.

The vaccine is also multipurpose, having already shown efficacy against fasciolosis, another parasitic infection that affects both humans and cattle.

Fiocruz expects the new vaccine to be used as a basis for developing others against diseases caused by parasitic worms.

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, named after renowned Brazilian epidemiologist Oswaldo Cruz, is considered as one of the world's leading public health research institutions.

Brazilian scientists are also working on a vaccine against dengue fever, a potentially lethal tropical disease that has become a chronic problem not only in Brazil but in several other countries around the world.

(Source: Xinhua)