One million children vaccinated against malaria in Africa
On the occasion of World Malaria Day, the WHO has good news: more than a million children in Africa have now been vaccinated against malaria.
the essentials in brief
- In Africa, more than a million children are vaccinated against malaria.
- The new vaccine RTS,S was used.
- Children as young as five months can be vaccinated with it.
In Africa, more than a million children have now received the new RTS,S vaccine against malaria. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended it for use after successful tests last October.
Where the vaccine is available in the pilot phase, 30 percent fewer children with malaria have come to hospital. Mary Hamel, who heads the WHO’s malaria programme, said in Geneva ahead of World Malaria Day (April 25).
Children as young as five months can be vaccinated and have some protection for several years. By the time they were five years old, most people had built up such a strong immune system that malaria was less able to harm them. Demand for the vaccine is greater than supply, Hamel said.
Other vaccines are in development
If the vaccine is used in as many countries as possible, it can save 40,000 to 80,000 lives a year. Other vaccines are in development. The organization also welcomes the announcement by the Mainz-based company Biontech that it is working on a malaria vaccine based on mRNA technology.
The WHO also hopes that the new drug tafenoquine will reduce the severity of malaria in adults. The drug only needs to be infected once.
In 2020, there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria in 85 countries, 95 percent of them in Africa. That was an increase from 2019, when there were 227 million cases. The number of deaths also rose by 12 percent to an estimated 627,000.
More than two thirds of the increase can be attributed to the corona pandemic. This is because people did not come to clinics, as stated in the 2021 World Malaria Report.
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