WHO has endorsed use of world’s first malaria vaccine in Africa.
Gatekeepers News reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the widespread rollout of the first malaria vaccine in Africa.
The RTS,S vaccine, also known as Mosquirix, was developed by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and has been administered to more than 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi since the pilot programme began in 2019.
The vaccine, which went through lengthy clinical trials, has limited efficacy, preventing 39% of malaria cases and 29% of severe malaria cases among small children in Africa over four years of trials.
However, in August, a study led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) found that when young children were given both the RTS,S and antimalarial drugs there was a 70% reduction in hospitalisation or death.
The WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus disclosed this at a press conference in Geneva.
He said that after a successful pilot programme in three African countries, the RTS,S vaccine should be made available more widely.
Ghebreyesus said, “I started my career as a malaria researcher, and I longed for the day that we would have an effective vaccine against this ancient and terrible disease. And today is that day, an historic day. Today, the WHO is recommending the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine.
“Using this vaccine in addition to existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.
“It is safe. It significantly reduces life-threatening, severe malaria, and we estimate it to be highly cost effective.
“Malaria has been with us for millennia, and the dream of a malaria vaccine has been a long held, but unattainable dream.
“Today, the RTS,S malaria vaccine, more than 30 years in the making, changes the course of public health history. We still have a very long road to travel. But this is a long stride down that road.”
