HQ Team
July 6, 2023: The UNICEF and the private-public partnership Gavi Vaccine Alliance will roll out its malaria vaccine for the first time in nine African countries to fight one of the deadliest diseases in the continent, according to the WHO.
Eighteen million doses of the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine will be delivered in 12 African nations over a two-year period. The vaccine has been administered to more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019.
It has been shown to be safe and effective, resulting in a substantial reduction in severe malaria and a decline in the deaths of children, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The nine new nations include Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, which will introduce the vaccine into their routine immunization programs for the first time.
Last quarter of 2023
The first doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in countries during the last quarter of 2023, with countries starting to roll them out by early 2024.
Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, coordinated by the WHO and funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid have been dispatching the vaccine in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
The allocations for the 12 nations have been determined through the application of the principles outlined in the Framework for allocation of limited malaria vaccine supply.
The framework prioritizes doses to areas of highest need, where the risk of malaria illness and death among children are highest. About 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the malaria vaccine.
96% of deaths
Malaria kills nearly half a million children under the age of five every year in Africa, accounting for about 96% of global malaria deaths in 2021.
“With the climate crisis changing weather patterns, mosquitoes that carry these diseases are increasing in density and spreading further afield,” Mr Terdos said. “And a second vaccine is currently under review for pre-qualification and if successful provides an additional supply in the short-term.”Annual global demand for malaria vaccines is estimated at 40–60 million doses by 2026 alone, growing to 80–100 million doses each year by 2030.
In addition to the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, developed and produced by GSK, and in the future supplied by Bharat Biotech, it is expected that a second vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, developed by Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), could also be prequalified by WHO soon.
Gavi Alliance has recently outlined its roadmap to support increasing supply to meet demand.
Chances of survival
Thabani Maphosa, managing ðirector of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance said: “While we work with manufacturers to help ramp up supply, we need to make sure the doses that we do have are used as effectively as possible, which means applying all the learnings from our pilot programs as we broaden out to a new total of 12 countries.”
Every minute, a child under five years old dies of malaria, said UNICEF Associate Director of Immunization Ephrem T Lemango.
“For a long time, these deaths have been preventable and treatable; but the rollout of this vaccine will give children, especially in Africa, an even better chance at surviving. As supply increases, we hope even more children can benefit from this life-saving advancement.”
