First malaria vaccine for at-risk children, the World Health Organisation (WHO) approves widespread use
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the widespread use of the world’s first malaria vaccine, RTS,S especially in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions with moderate to high transmission.
The recommendation is because of the ongoing pilot program set up by WHO and partners in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019.
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According to WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “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.”
Malaria kills more than 400,000 people each year worldwide according to the United Nations. The malaria parasite is mostly transmitted by infective mosquitoes and carried in the blood, after being bitten and it, symptoms include a fever of flu-like illness, nausea and vomiting, and if left untreated, it can be deadly.
The WHO says the deaths have fallen by more than half, and the disease has been eliminated in many parts of the world since the year 2000. More than 200 million cases are recorded every year and two third of the those who die are children under five in Africa. More than 260,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria annually in Sub-Saharan Africa s .
According to , Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said that “for centuries, malaria has stalked sub-Saharan Africa, causing immense personal suffering..We have long hoped for an effective malaria vaccine and now for the first time ever, we have such a vaccine recommended for widespread use”,
WHO organization is recommending that the immunization should be administered in regions with moderate to high transmission, in a schedule of four doses, in children from five months of age and above through child health clinics by Ministries of Health, reaching children with high coverage.
Since the discovery of this vaccine, more than 2.3 million doses of the vaccine have been administered, showing a favorable safety profile with no negative effect on uptake of bed nets, other childhood vaccinations, according to the WHO. The administration of this vaccine has significantly led to the reduction (30%) in deadly severe malaria
RTS,S is the first, and to date, the only vaccine that has demonstrated it can significantly reduce malaria, and life-threatening severe malaria, in young African children. Beginning in 2019, 3 sub-Saharan African countries – Ghana, Kenya and Malawi – are leading the introduction of the vaccine in selected areas of moderate-to-high malaria transmission as part of a large-scale pilot programme coordinated by WHO
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NB, this vaccine is not coming to replace or reduce the need for other preventive measures like the COVID-19 vaccines which has come not to replace the existing tools in combating its spread but to add.
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Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
