Health officials in Africa are confident and hopeful that the first-ever malaria vaccine ‘Mosquirix’ approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) will “dramatically change” the way the continent of 1.3 billion people combats the lethal disease.

John Nkengasong Director of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “The new malaria vaccine is a ‘game-changer’ in combating the disease which accounts for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year in Africa”.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute which has assisted in the evaluation of the vaccine said in a statement that the WHO’s approval comes as a ‘delightment’ for the institute.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, which consists of the world’s highest cases of malaria with 27 per cent of the total global malaria toll, officials said that they hope Africa’s most populous country will get priority when the distribution of the vaccine begins.

The first-ever Malaria vaccine ‘Mosquirix’ was given the nod by the WHO based on results of clinical trials in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi. The vaccine has been administered to hundreds of thousands of kids since 2019.

WHO’s director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that after a successful pilot programme in at least three African countries, the vaccine, which is also known as RTS or S/AS01, had received a green light to be rolled out widely. Scientists on the WHO’s advisory bodies for immunisation and malaria teams have called the vaccine a breakthrough that could save lives from the deadly disease.

The disease took the lives of at least 3,86,000 people in the continent in 2019, which accounts for 90% of the global tally, with six African countries accounting for more than half of the malaria deaths across the globe, as per the WHO report.

Meanwhile, the Mosquirix vaccine which came years after continued failure in finding a solution for protection against the disease, has minimal efficacy of about 30% in cases of severe malaria. However, it brings a ray of hope for African countries where people hardly have access to bed nets or other preventive measures.
Meanwhile WHO on Wednesday stated that the malaria vaccine introduction is feasible, improves health, and saves lives, with good and equitable coverage of RTS, S/AS01 as was seen through routine immunisation systems, for example, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the pilot programme showed that more than two-thirds of children in three countries who are not sleeping under a bednet are benefitting from the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine. To date, more than 2.3 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in three African countries, stated WHO, adding that the vaccine has a favourable safety profile. The global health agency further stated that the next steps for the WHO-recommended malaria vaccine will include funding decisions from the global health community for broader rollout, and country decision-making on whether to adopt the vaccine as part of national malaria control strategies.