The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday recommended a second malaria vaccine for children, which could save hundreds of thousands of lives by plugging a huge supply and demand gap.
Nearly half a million children in the African region die every year from the disease, which is caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes.
“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,” said the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Britain’s Oxford University and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, has already been approved for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria.
In 2021, the RTS,S vaccine, produced by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, became the first to be recommended by the WHO to prevent malaria in children in areas with moderate to high malaria transmission.
“Demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds supply, so this second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future,” Tedros said.
The two vaccines have similar efficacy rates of around 75 percent when administered under the same conditions.
The cost-effectiveness of the new vaccine would be comparable to other childhood vaccines, with a dose of R21/Matrix-M costing between $2 and $4, the WHO said.
Almost half the world’s population lives in a malaria high-risk area, with the vast majority of cases and deaths occurring in Africa.
WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said the new vaccine held great potential for the continent by helping to close the huge demand-and-supply gap.
“Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease,” she said.
Dengue, meningitis, COVID-19 vaccines
Beyond malaria, the WHO recommended a new dengue vaccine, Qdenga, for six to 16 years old in areas where the disease is a major public health problem.
Its experts also recommended a new meningitis vaccine, Men5CV, which protects against five species of disease-causing bacteria.
The health agency also said that in the fight against COVID-19, a single dose of most vaccines is now sufficient for primary immunization against the disease, given that most people have already been infected at least once.
