Published on : 21/04/2022 – 21:14
More than one million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have now received at least one dose of the first malaria vaccine through a pilot programme, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. .
Through a pilot program, more than one million African children have received at least one dose of the first malaria vaccine.
Vaccinations against malariafirst launched in April 2019 in Malawi, followed by Kenya and Ghana, demonstrated that the “RTS,S” vaccine“was safe and “substantially reduced severe cases” of the disease, assured the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday April 21 in a press release issued before World Malaria Day (25 april).
This observation had led the WHO, as early as October 2021, to recommend the massive deployment of this vaccine in children living in sub-Saharan Africa and in areas at risk, likely to save the lives of 40,000 to 80,000 African children per year. More than 155 million dollars have been mobilized by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) to allow the delivery of these vaccines, specifies the text.
“This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it is a life change for families across the African continent,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO, in the press release, while stressing the “need urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and move towards a malaria-free world”.
A first step towards other vaccines
The “RTS,S”, manufactured by the British pharmaceutical giant GSKis “a first-generation vaccine, which could be supplemented in the future by other vaccines with similar or superior efficacy”, further believes the organization, welcoming the progress in the development of other serums and new treatments.
Funding for research and development in the fight against malaria was just over $619 million in 2020. It will need an average of $851 million per year over the period 2021-2030, says the press release again.
“RTS,S” acts against the most deadly mosquito-borne parasite “plasmodium falciparum” globally and most prevalent in Africa.
A very old disease, reported since antiquity, malaria is manifested by fever, headaches and muscle pain, then by cycles of chills, fever and sweat. If not treated in time, it can be fatal.
Around 90% of the world’s malaria cases are recorded in Africa, where 260,000 children die from it every year.
With AFP