2023-07-06 01:55:22
WHO announces plans to deliver 18 million doses of malaria vaccine in 12 African countries. (Photo: UNICEF)
The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) announced on the 5th that by 2025, regarding 18 million vaccines will be provided to 12 African countries. A malaria vaccine.
“Malaria remains one of the deadliest diseases in Africa, killing nearly 550,000 children under the age of five each year,” WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
According to statistics, in 2021, 96% of malaria deaths in the world will occur in Africa.
Mosquirix (RTS, S), developed by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has been approved by the World Health Organization as the world’s first malaria vaccine available for children. More than 1.7 million children in three African countries, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, have been vaccinated with the vaccine as part of a pilot program.
“It has been shown to be safe and effective, with a dramatic reduction in severe malaria cases and a drop in child mortality,” Tedros said.
Nearly 30 African countries have said they want a malaria vaccine.
In addition to the three countries that will continue to be tested, nine other countries will also receive vaccine supplies, WHO, UNICEF and the Vaccine Alliance said in a statement.
The nine countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia ), Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
The first batch of vaccines is expected to arrive in the last quarter of 2023, with administration starting in early 2024.
A second malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, developed by Oxford University and produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), is “currently undergoing prequalification by WHO,” Tedros said. The purpose of this program is to ensure that health products supplied to low-income countries are safe and effective.
Kate O’Brien, director of WHO’s Vaccines and Immunization Department, said, “It is very important to remember that children are dying of malaria almost every minute… Vaccines are a new tool in the fight once morest severe disease, death… This is A very important step forward”.
Ryan said the vaccine is “definitely a step in the right direction, and it’s a prelude to many more millions of doses.”
Worldwide demand for malaria vaccines is expected to reach 40 million to 60 million doses per year by 2026 and 80 million to 100 million doses per year by 2030, according to WHO, UNICEF and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Malaria is a disease that is transmitted to humans through the bite of certain types of mosquitoes. According to the latest WHO data, malaria will kill 619,000 people worldwide in 2021.
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