Million milestone passed for malaria vaccine

Monday April 25th 2022

More than one million children in three African countries have received at least one dose of the world’s first malaria vaccine as part of a pilot programme.

The news was announced to mark World Malaria Day today.

The programme, co-ordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), was launched by the government of Malawi in April 2019 after it was shown the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) vaccine is safe and substantially reduces severe malaria.

Now, more than one million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have gone on to receive the vaccine after WHO recommended in October 2021 that children living in settings with moderate to high malaria transmission should be given RTS,S.

WHO estimates the vaccine could save the lives of an additional 40,000 to 80,000 African children each year if it is widely deployed.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said: “As a malaria researcher in my early career, I dreamed of the day we would have an effective vaccine against this devastating disease.

“This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it’s life-changing for families across Africa. It demonstrates the power of science and innovation for health. Even so, there is an urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and drive progress towards a malaria-free world.”

RTS,S is a first-generation vaccine and there are also in early clinical development R21/Matrix-M and other malaria vaccine candidates.

WHO has also welcomed news from BioNTech that it aims to develop a malaria vaccine using mRNA technology.

The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has recently approved dispersible tablets of single-dose tafenoquine for the prevention of P. vivax malaria among children, while the US Federal Drug Administration, and other drug regulatory bodies, including Brazil, Peru and Thailand, have approved it for adults.

A number of other antimalarial medicines with new modes of action are being developed for the treatment of uncomplicated and severe malaria: Ganaplacide-Lumefantrine, which is being assessed in a phase II clinical trial, is the first non-artemisinin combination therapy and could be an asset in fight against emerging drug-resistant malaria in Africa.

According to the 2021 world malaria report, global progress in reducing malaria cases and deaths has slowed or stalled in recent years, particularly in countries hardest hit by the disease.

WHO said reaching global malaria targets will need innovations in the use of the available tools. With the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, it launched in 2018 the “high burden to high impact” approach, which has seen countries hardest hit by malaria collecting and analysing malaria data to better understand the geographical spread of the disease.

They are considering the potential impact of tailored packages of interventions informed by local data to enable countries to use available funds in a more effective, efficient and equitable way.

Tags: Africa | Pharmaceuticals | World Health

Printer friendly page