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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 said on Thursday.
Through a pilot program, more than 1 million African children have received at least one dose of the first malaria vaccine.
Vaccinations against malariawhich was first launched in April 2019 in Malawi, followed by Kenya and Ghana That the “RTS,S” vaccineIt was safe and “significantly reduced severe cases” of the disease, the World Health Organization confirmed Thursday, April 21 in a press release issued ahead of World Malaria Day (April 25).
This observation prompted the World Health Organization, as early as October 2021, to recommend that this vaccine be widely deployed in children living in sub-Saharan Africa and in high-risk areas, and would likely save the lives of 40,000 to 80,000 African children annually. More than $155 million has been mobilized by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) to allow the delivery of these vaccines, the text specifies.
“This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it is changing the lives of families across the African continent,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said in the press release, while stressing the “urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and move towards a world free.” of malaria.
A first step towards other vaccines
“RTS,S” made by British pharmaceutical giant GSKIt is “a first-generation vaccine, which may be supplemented in the future with other vaccines of similar or higher efficacy,” the organization believes, and welcomes progress in developing other vaccines and new treatments.
Funding for malaria research and development totaled just over $619 million in 2020. It will need an average of $851 million annually over the period from 2021 to 2030, the press release says again.
RTS,S works against the world’s deadliest mosquito-borne parasite Plasmodium falciparum and the most prevalent in Africa.
A very old disease, it has been reported since ancient times, malaria is manifested by fever, headache and muscle aches, then chills, fever and sweats. If not treated in time, it can be fatal.
About 90% of malaria cases in the world are recorded in Africa, where every year 260,000 children die from it.
with AFP
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