The World Health Organisation on Wednesday approved the world’s first vaccine for malaria.
The RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) vaccine is made by GlaxoSmithKline and known as Mosquirix. Mosquirix had been undergoing trials in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, where more than 800,000 children were administered it since 2019. Mosquirix is the first vaccine developed for a parasitic disease, making the WHO recommendation even more significant. "Parasites are much more complex than viruses or bacteria, and the quest for a malaria vaccine has been under way for a hundred years," The New York Times reported.
The WHO on Wednesday recommended its widespread use among countries of sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum (Plasmodium falciparum) malaria transmission.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the approval as a "historic moment". "The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control," Ghebreyesus said.
Malaria kills an estimated 500,000 people annually, with most victims in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the WHO, "Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260 000 African children under the age of five die from malaria annually."
The vaccine works by rousing a child's immune system to thwart Plasmodium falciparum, considered the deadliest of five malaria pathogens. Plasmodium falciparum is the most prevalent pathogen in Africa.
The New York Times reported, "In clinical trials, the vaccine had an efficacy of about 50 per cent against severe malaria in the first year, but the figure dropped close to zero by the fourth year. And the trials did not directly measure the vaccine’s impact on deaths, which has led some experts to question whether it is a worthwhile investment in countries with countless other intractable problems."
Julian Rayner, director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, conceded Mosquirix was an "imperfect vaccine" but "is a huge step forward". Rayner argued the vaccine "will still stop hundreds of thousands of children from dying".