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In a landmark event, the World Health Organization recommended that the first malaria vaccine be distributed to children living in sub-Saharan Africa and in high-risk areas.
“The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a scientific breakthrough, for children’s health and for the fight against malaria,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Using this vaccine in addition to the tools available to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year,” he added.
The RTS, S vaccine works against a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, which is the world’s deadliest parasite and the most common in Africa.
The vaccine is also a beacon of hope for Africa, where malaria kills more than 260,000 children under the age of five each year, especially as concerns about resistance to antimalarial drugs increase.
Active fertilization
“For centuries, malaria has plagued sub-Saharan Africa and caused enormous suffering,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“We have maintained for years our hope of obtaining an effective vaccine against malaria, and now, for the first time, we have a vaccine recommended for widespread use,” he added.
malaria
It should be noted that three countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, have since 2019 started using the vaccine in selected areas where transmission of malaria is moderate to severe.
Two years after the start of the world’s first field trials of this vaccine, 2.3 million doses have been administered.
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