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GlaxoSmithKline Plc and its partners are finally ready to roll out a malaria vaccine, after more than three decades of work and an investment of nearly a billion dollars.
The vaccine comes at a critical time and marks a turning point in the fight against the parasite that causes malaria. Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that kills nearly half a million people each year.
The WHO estimates that malaria killed 435,000 people in 2017. Children under five are particularly vulnerable in Africa and their deaths account for about two-thirds of all deaths.
The incredible ability of the malaria parasite to resist drugs and insecticides because of the complexity of its genes makes it more difficult to eliminate the disease.
A study conducted in 2017 by Bloomberg with more than 600 children of a given age A village in Gabon, a West African country, discovered that each of them was infected with a slightly different strain.
When interviewing children in certain areas of several malaria episodes in one year, even a partially effective vaccine could have a significant impact, said Mary Hamel, WHO program coordinator, in a statement. interview with Bloomberg.
The pilot project is expected to start in Malawi next week and then expand to Ghana and Kenya.
As the pilot project begins in Africa, scientists are turning to the next generation of potential technologies.
"This is the first malaria vaccine," said Hamel, "not the last."
WHO believes the program could save tens of thousands of children's lives.
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