The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the world’s first ever vaccine for malaria.
WHO approved the vaccine on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
The Mosquirix vaccine is not only a first for malaria, it is the first developed for a parasitic disease.
The vaccine, manufactured by British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline
aims to fight against malaria that kills around half a million people each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is to be administered in in three doses for persons between ages 5 and 17 months, and a fourth dose roughly 18 months later.
Ghana, Kenya and Malawi are leading the introduction of the vaccine in selected areas of moderate-to-high malaria transmission as part of a large-scale pilot programme coordinated by WHO.
More than 2.3 million doses have been administered in these nations, reaching greater than 800,000 youngsters.
Dr. Mary Hamel, who drives the W.H.O’s. intestinal sickness immunization execution program has revealed that making Mosquirix part of routine immunization made it surprisingly straightforward to distribute even within the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to her, it took years to create an environment friendly system to distribute insecticide-treated mattress nets to households.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press release stated that “This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, children’s health and the fight against malaria”.