2023-07-05 16:38:10
The World Health Organization (WHO) will ship 18 million doses of the first malaria vaccine with the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). These will be sent to 12 African countries, its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
Malaria “remains one of the deadliest diseases in Africa,” he told reporters in Geneva. Each year, nearly 500 million children die of this pathology in this region, which accounts for 95% of cases and 96% of victims worldwide in 2021.
The first malaria vaccine was tested in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. About 1.6 million children have been immunized and this device is “safe and effective”, reducing the number of infections and deaths. Nearly 30 African countries now want to use it. The first campaigns are expected to reach millions of people early next year.
Caregivers prepare to vaccinate children in the Kenyan village of Migowi on December 10, 2019. Kenya, along with Malawi and Ghana, hosted trials of the first malaria vaccine. [AP Photo/Jerome Delay – Keystone]
Other vaccines under evaluation
But the supply is not sufficient in relation to the needs. Other vaccines are being evaluated. In addition to the three test countries, the millions of doses are planned for the period up to 2025 in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
The three international institutions welcome “a very important step” in the fight against this disease. The first doses will arrive in the last months of this year. By 2026, organizations expect requests for up to 60 million doses. By 2030, this figure is expected to reach up to 100 million.
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