Experts believe that widespread distribution of the first malaria vaccine should be encouraged by the World Health Organization. This could help save the lives of tens of thousands of African children each year.
The WHO's director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus hailed a historic day and said that the RTS,S vaccine must be widely available after three successful pilot programs in Africa.
My career began as a researcher in malaria, and I dreamed of a day when we could have a vaccine to this terrible and ancient disease. Today is that historic day. Tedros, a Geneva-based journalist, stated that today the WHO recommends widespread use of the first ever malaria vaccine.
The RTS,S vaccine (also known as Mosquirix) was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (British pharmaceutical company). It has been administered to over 800,000 children in Ghana and Malawi since the pilot program began in 2019.
Over four years, the vaccine has been subject to lengthy clinical trials. It was found to be ineffective, having prevented 39% of malaria cases, and 29% of severe cases among children in Africa.
A study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), however, found that young children who were given both RTS,S as well as antimalarial drugs saw a 70% decrease in the rate of hospitalisations or deaths.
Tedros stated Wednesday that the use of this vaccine along with existing tools to prevent malaria could save thousands of young lives every year. It is safe. It reduces severe, life-threatening malaria and is highly cost-effective.
He said: Malaria has been around for millennia and the long-held dream of a vaccine against it has been unattainable. The RTS,S Malaria vaccine is now available. This has been a 30-year-long process. It will change the course of public healthcare history. There is still a lot of work to do. It is still a long road.
There are fears that decades of progress in ending malaria may have stalled. Some countries such as Eritrea, Sudan and Sudan have seen significant resurgences over recent years. In 2019, 49,000 people died of the mosquito-borne parasite infection, with most of these deaths occurring in Africa. Children under five years old were among the most affected.
Experts believe that the WHO's announcement will revive the search for other vaccines. This quest has been ongoing for nearly a century.
Scientists at the Jenner Institute in Oxford University announced earlier this year that a vaccine they had created had achieved results that would allow it to be the first vaccine to reach the WHO target of 75% efficacy. The vaccine was tested in Burkina Faso with 450 children. It showed 77% efficacy over 12 months. Trials involving 4,800 children from four countries are currently underway.
Thomas Breuer is GSK's chief global officer for health. He said that RTS.S, GSK's groundbreaking malaria vaccine, has been made available to children in sub-Saharan Africa. This was a result of decades of collaboration between our teams and our partners.
This landmark decision, long awaited and deserved, can help to reenergize the fight against malaria in the region. It comes at a time when progress has slowed down on controlling malaria. Real-world data and clinical trials data prove that RTS.S can save hundreds of thousands of lives.
GSK stated that it would supply up to 15 million doses per year at a cost not exceeding 5% of production. It said it would work with governments, funders, and partners to increase the supply.
Director of advocacy at Malaria No More, Gareth Jenkins, stated that the announcement was an historic moment and a critical step towards building our arsenal of weapons against malaria.
He noted the important role GSK played in the development RTS,S vaccine and urged the UK government not to stop investing in cutting-edge research to finally create a zero-malaria world.
This complicated, but treatable, disease causes millions of infections every year. It can be fatal and cause a lot of hardship for people living in the most poorest countries of Africa. He said that if we can save lives from malaria today we can also protect ourselves from the diseases of tomorrow.
