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World First Malaria Vaccine ‘Mosquirix’ Approved by W.H.O.

Mosquito-borne disease Malaria kills more than 500,000 people worldwide each year, about half of them children in Africa. However, there was no vaccine to prevent this disease for so long. Finally, a vaccine has become a beacon of hope. The World Health Organization (WHO) approved a malaria vaccine on Wednesday.

The new vaccine isn’t perfect, but it will help turn the tide, experts said.

The world has gained a new weapon in the war on malaria, among the oldest known and deadliest of infectious diseases: the first vaccine shown to help prevent the disease. By one estimate, it will save tens of thousands of children each year.

Malaria kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa — including 260,000 children under 5. The new vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, rouses a child’s immune system to thwart Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the vaccine, the first step in a process that should lead to wide distribution in poor countries. To have a malaria vaccine that is safe, moderately effective and ready for distribution is “a historic event,” said Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the W.H.O.’s global malaria program.

World First Malaria Vaccine 'Mosquirix' Approved by W.H.O.
A health care worker vaccinates a child with the Mosquirix vaccine in Kenya in 2019. After a successful pilot program in Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi, the World Health Organization has recommended the vaccine to all at-risk children

Malaria is rare in the developed world. There are just 2,000 cases in the United States each year, mostly among travelers returning from countries in which the disease is endemic.

Yesterday’s decision by the WHO was based on the results of a pilot program conducted in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi since 2019. As part of the program, more than 2 million doses of malaria vaccine have been administered in the three African countries. The vaccine was first invented in 1987 by GSK, a British pharmaceutical company.

From now on, the sub-Saharan region of Africa and the high prevalence of malaria, the vaccine can be applied to children in all parts of the world. This four-dose vaccine can be given from the age of two.

 

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