Cameroon has launched the world’s first routine malaria vaccine programme, which is expected to save tens of thousands of children’s lives per year across Africa, and which will be rolled out in another 19 countries in 2024, targeting some 6.6m children.
After four decades in the making, the World Health Organisation (WHO)-approved RTS,S vaccine, also known as Mosquirix and developed by British drugmaker GSK – is meant to work in conjunction with existing tools like mosquito nets to combat malaria, which annually kills nearly half a million children under five in Africa, reports Reuters.
After successful trials Cameroon is the first country to administer doses through a routine immunisation programme.
Disruptions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, rising insecticide resistance, and other issues have hindered the fight against malaria in recent years, with cases rising by around 5m year-on-year in 2022, said the WHO.
Overall, more than 30 countries on the continent have expressed interest in introducing the vaccine.
Fears of a supply squeeze have eased since a second vaccine completed a key regulatory step in December.
Rolling out the second vaccine is expected to result in sufficient vaccine supply to meet the high demand and reach millions more children. This R21 vaccine, developed by University of Oxford, could be launched in May or June, said Gavi's chief programme officer Aurelia Nguyen.
Some experts have expressed scepticism, saying attention and funding should not be drawn away from the wider fight against the age-old killer and the use of established malaria-prevention tools, like bed nets.
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First shipment of malaria vaccine reaches Cameroon
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First malaria vaccine to be piloted in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi