Home News Malaria vaccine for children is “a step in the right direction” –...
…paves way for research for vaccines for other parasitic diseases
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has lauded the successful creation and intended rollout of the malaria vaccine for children, labelling it as a step in the right direction to curtail the high numbers of annual deaths from this disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) this week recommended widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission.
The recommendation is based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019.
On Friday, the Minister said, “I think we’re going in the right direction. Malaria, especially Falciparum malaria, has been responsible on an annual basis for close to half a million deaths. Among those deaths every year you have about 360,000 children dying from Falciparum malaria. With this particular vaccine that they have developed, it is going to help reduce the amount of deaths that we’re seeing, and certainly it will improve conditions in those countries with high prevalence.”
He added that it is a hopeful picture for the health sector, promising additional research for the formulation of vaccines for other parasitic diseases. The malarial vaccine is the first to be created against a parasitic disease.
“We’re very hopeful, and this particular vaccine in many ways represents a first, because it’s the first time that a vaccine against a parasitic disease has been developed and has proven to be effective. I think this is opening up avenues for more such developments, and we’ll probably be able to see research going in the development of new types of vaccines against parasitic diseases.”
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has since dubbed this long-awaited vaccine “historic”.
“The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health, and malaria control… Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year,” said the Director-General.
Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in Sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria annually. In recent years, WHO and its partners have been reporting a stagnation in progress against the deadly disease.
Based on the advice of two WHO global advisory bodies, one for immunisation and the other for malaria, the Organization recommended that the malaria vaccine be used for the prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children living in regions with moderate to high transmissions; and that the vaccine should be provided in a schedule of four doses in children from five months of age.
To date, more than 2.3 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in three African countries. (G12)
