The World Health Organization (WHO) has formally authorized the world’s second-ever malaria vaccine. It was developed on the University of Oxford and can price between $2 and $4 USD per dose.
The New Vaccine Will Help “Protect More Children Faster”
The WHO introduced the information via a press release on Monday (Oct. 2). Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — the group’s director-general — declared he used to “dream” of this second.
“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two.”
He added, “This second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future.”
The WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, additional highlighted this sentiment. He famous that the 2 WHO-approved vaccines “can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts” in Africa.
“This second vaccine holds real potential to close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease.”
For context, the WHO notes that malaria “places a particularly high burden on children in the African Region, where nearly half a million children die from the disease each year.”
However, AP News reviews that John Johnson of Doctors Without Borders factors out that the vaccine isn’t a sure-fire resolution.
“This is one more tool we will now have, but it’s not going to replace bed nets and spraying insecticides. This is not the vaccine that’s going to stop malaria.”
Reuters notes that the vaccine was developed on the University of Oxford, and it’ll turn out to be accessible by mid-2024.
Today is a good day for well being, a fantastic day for science, and a fantastic day for vaccines:@WHO is recommending a second vaccine to stop #malaria in youngsters liable to the illness, referred to as R21/Matrix-M.
Demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds provide, so the R21 vaccine is a… pic.twitter.com/1trR6fmYMc
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 2, 2023
The WHO Approved The First Malaria Vaccine In 2021
This noteworthy growth comes practically two years after the WHO formally endorsed the first-ever malaria vaccine.
AP News reviews the “historic” choice got here on account of researchers monitoring greater than 800,000 Ghanaian, Kenyan, and Malawian youngsters who acquired the vaccine since 2019.
The vaccine, Mosquirix, was initially conceived in 1987 and boasts a 30% effectiveness price. Nonetheless, Dr. Julian Rayner of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research stated the “imperfect vaccine” was a “huge step forward.”
In the WHO’s current assertion on a second, cheaper vaccine being authorized, the group declared, “Both vaccines are shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when implemented broadly, are expected to have high public health impact.”
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