WHO gives nod for malaria jab roll-out
VACCINE BY UK DRUGMAKER TOOK 30 YEARS TO DEVELOP
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday the only approved vaccine against malaria should be widely given to African children, potentially marking a major advance against a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people annually.
The WHO recommendation is for RTS, S — or Mosquirix — a vaccine developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.
Since 2019, 2.3 million doses of Mosquirix have been administered to infants in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in a largescale pilot programme coordinated by the WHO. The majority of those whom the disease kills are under age five.
Trials in 7 countries
That programme followed a decade of clinical trials in seven African countries.
“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 like bed nets and spraying to kill mosquitoes that transmit the disease. One of the ingredients in the Mosquirix vaccine is sourced from a rare evergreen native to Chile called a Quillay tree.
Deadlier than Covid-19
Malaria is far more deadly than Covid-19 in Africa. It killed 386,000 Africans in 2019, according to a WHO estimate, compared with 212,000 confirmed Covid-19 deaths in the past 18 months.
The WHO says 94 per cent of malaria cases and deaths occur in Africa. The preventable disease is caused by parasites transmitted to people by the bites of infected mosquitoes.
“This long-awaited landmark decision can reinvigorate the fight against malaria in the region at a time when progress on malaria control has stalled,” Thomas Breuer, GSK’s chief global health officer, said in a statement.