MALARIA VACCINE A ‘BREAKTHROUGH FOR SCIENCE’, WHO CHIEF SAYS

Thu 07 October 2021:

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that only approved vaccine against malaria by the World Health Organization (WHO) should be widely distributed to African children, marking a significant step forward in the fight against a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.

RTS,S, also known as “Mosquirix,” is a vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, a British pharmaceutical company.

In a large-scale trial program organized by the WHO, 2.3 million doses of Mosquirix have been given to newborns in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019. The majority of those whom the disease kills are aged under five.

Following a decade of clinical trials in seven African countries, this initiative was launched.

“This long-awaited malaria vaccine is a breakthrough for science. This is a vaccine developed in Africa by African scientists and we’re very proud,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Using this vaccine in addition to existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year,” he added, referring to anti-malaria measures such as bed nets and spraying.

In Africa, malaria is significantly more deadly than COVID-19. According to a WHO estimate, it killed 386,000 Africans in 2019, compared to 212,000 verified fatalities from COVID-19 in the previous 18 months.

According to the WHO, Africa, which has a population of 1.3 billion people, accounts for 94% of malaria infections and fatalities. The disease is caused by parasites that are transferred to individuals by mosquito bites; symptoms include fever, vomiting, and exhaustion.

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