Geneva: The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it is now recommending the widespread use of RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine among children in all the regions with moderate to high risk of malaria transmission.
This is the world’s first vaccine against the mosquito-borne disease that kills over 400,000 people each year, and most of them are African children. The global health body said that the recommendation is based on the outcomes of a pilot programme that has touched over 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019.
WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control. Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”
The WHO noted that the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine is the culmination of 30 years of research and development by GSK, in collaboration with PATH (a global health organisation) and with the assistance of a network of African research centres.
However, based on the recommendations of two WHO global advisory committees—one for vaccination and the other for malaria, which remains the primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa—WHO advises that the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine be used in the context of comprehensive malaria control for the prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children residing in WHO-defined moderate to high transmission areas.
According to the UN agency, the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine should be given to children starting at the age of 5 months on a 4-dose schedule to reduce malaria disease and burden.
Based on the pilot program, WHO highlighted some key findings. It said that with good and equitable RTS,S/AS01 coverage seen through routine vaccination systems, vaccine introduction is possible, improves health and saves lives. WHO also added that “this occurred even in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The findings also revealed that more than two-thirds of children in the three countries are benefitting from the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine. More than 2.3 million doses of the vaccine have been given out in those African nations so far, and the vaccine has a good safety profile, said WHO adding that as per the findings, there was “no negative impact on the uptake of bednets, other childhood vaccinations or health-seeking behaviour for febrile illness”.
“Significant reduction (30 per cent) in deadly severe malaria, even when introduced in areas where insecticide-treated nets are widely used and there is good access to diagnosis and treatment,” the health agency noted. It also said that modelling estimates that the vaccine is cost-effective in places where malaria transmission is moderate to high. Swarajyamag.com
