Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 3rd Oct. World Health agency on Monday authorized a new anti-malaria vaccine for children, a move that could offer countries a cheaper and more readily available option than the world’s first shot against the parasitic disease, said in a press release issued in New York.
WHO said that the R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Britain’s Oxford University, can be used to curb the life-threatening illness spread to humans by mosquitoes.
It stated that “both vaccines are shown to be safe and effective to prevent malaria in children and, when implemented broadly, are expected to have high public health impact.”
The agency noted that the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, after the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which received a WHO recommendation in 2021.
According to WHO malaria “places a particularly high burden on children in the African Region”, with half a million children dying each year.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “As a malaria researcherI used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two”.
The agency noted that the demand for malaria vaccines is unprecedented, RTS,S is in short supply.
The addition of R21 to the list of approved shots is expected to result in sufficient supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk.
Tedros described it as “a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future.”
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the shot “holds real potential to close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease.”
Tedros said that WHO is reviewing the vaccine for prequalification. It got approval that will enable GAVI a global vaccine alliance and UNICEF to buy the vaccine from manufacturer.
The vaccine will be available in some African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria in early 2024, and will be available in mid-2024 in other countries, Tedros said, adding that doses would cost between $2 and $4.
According to Tedros, WHO approved the new malaria vaccine based on the advice of two expert groups: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group.
WHO recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ vaccine against dengue for children aged six to 16 living in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem.
The agency said that dengue, common in tropical and subtropical climates, is a viral infection spread from mosquitoes to people.
WHO advisory group SAGE recommended that all countries in the African “meningitis belt” introduce what it described as Men5CV into their routine immunization programmes. It said a single dose scheduled at nine to 18 months of age should fight the disease.
WHO added that “in high-risk countries, and countries with high-risk districts, a catch-up campaign should also be conducted at the time of the introduction of Men5CV, targeting all individuals aged 1 to 19 years.”
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