2023-07-09 06:35:36
The World Health Organization (WHO), the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced this week that 18 million doses will be sent to the African continent in the two years to come.
The pilot phase of the first-ever malaria vaccine is still ongoing and will continue until the end of this year 2023 in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, where the vaccine has been administered to around 1.7 million people. children.
According to the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this vaccine against malaria has been shown to be “safe and effective” during the pilot phase, “resulting in a substantial reduction in severe forms and deaths”.
These three countries will be given priority for the 18 million doses announced for the end of this year, with a view to the first vaccinations in 2024.
Then, the nine other countries – notably Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda, Liberia and Burundi – will benefit from it, at their request.
As a reminder, the RTS,S vaccine was developed by the British group Glaxo Smith Kleine (GSK) and is intended in four doses for children under five. The first three doses will be spaced one month apart, the fourth will be administered between 15 and 18 months after the third dose.
Children under the age of five are most at risk of malaria and nearly 500,000 children die from it each year.
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