Like COVID, There is Now a WHO Approved Vaccine For Malaria But Why Did it Take So Long?

Malaria is a major cause of death in Sub-saharan Africa. The UNICEF reports that an estimated 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 407,000 deaths in 2016. Malaria preys upon the vulnerable: children under five years of age, the poorest and most marginalized, pregnant women, and their unborn children.

Today, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that it is recommending widespread use of the malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission.

The recommendation according to the global health body is based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800 000 children since 2019.

The WHO recommendation is for RTS,S, sold as “Mosquirix”, a vaccine developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

Explaining how to use the vaccine, the WHO said: “Based on the advice of two WHO global advisory bodies, one for immunization and the other for malaria, the Organization recommends that: “RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine should be provided in a schedule of 4 doses in children from 5 months of age for the reduction of malaria disease and burden.”

“This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Using this vaccine on top of existing  tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”

“For centuries, malaria has stalked sub-Saharan Africa, causing immense personal suffering,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We have long hoped for an effective malaria vaccine and now for the first time ever, we have such a vaccine recommended for widespread use. Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease and we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults.”

This is good news especially for Africans who have been at the mercy of Malaria for decades. Before this vaccine, the WHO advice the use of Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) treatments for uncomplicated falciparum malaria. The following ACTs are recommended: – Artemether + lumefantrine; artesunate + amodiaquine; artesunate + mefloquine; artesunate + sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, and dihydroartemisinin + piperaquine.

But why did a Malaria Vaccine take so long unlike COVID?

Malaria as earlier said is one of the deadliest causes of death in Africa. However, it has taken years for a vaccine approved by the WHO to surface. Compared this to COVID-19 which arrived in 2019 and within two years, the WHO has approved several vaccines for the global pandemic.

Clearly, there are procedures for approving and global pharmaceutical firms are doing all they can for some of the world’s chronic diseases. But it seems diseases that affect Africans are not given so much attention which is arguably and probably the reason why we are just getting a vaccine approved for malaria.