New R21 Vaccine Offers Hope on World Malaria Day

World Malaria Day is celebrated on April 25. The 2023 anniversary is welcomed by countries where this disease is still a threat to society. The good news about this vaccine comes from trials in Kenya.

Eunice Jumwa lives in the village of Mibuyu Saba in Kilifi, Kenya with her two children.
Malaria was becoming a problem and she was worried about her children.

“This area is damp and people cannot sleep under mosquito nets. Hospitals are far and expensive. Therefore an effective vaccine would be very helpful. When my children are bitten by mosquitoes, I usually take them to the hospital three times every month. This makes me unable to save money and therefore an effective vaccine will be very helpful in efforts to eradicate this disease,” he explained.

According to CDC estimates, more than 3.5 million people in Kenya contract malaria and more than 10,000 people die from it each year.

Francis Ndungu, a malaria immunologist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust, said, “In the case of malaria, the mosquito bites and injects a type of parasite called a sporozoite and the sporozoit passes through the lymph and blood circulation system and finally reaches the liver. So the vaccine we’re talking about, the R21/Matrix-M vaccine, blocks the sporozoites, stops them from attacking liver cells.”

The new vaccine, R21 offers hope. Initial test results showed that the vaccine was much more effective than the RTS,S malaria vaccine, the only vaccine currently authorized for use by the WHO.

READ ALSO: WHO Launches First Malaria Vaccine in Africa

Results from late-stage trials have not been published, and the R21 vaccine is under review by WHO. Ghana became the first country to approve its launch on April 13. Nigeria has also approved its launch.

WHO has launched the world’s first official malaria vaccine pilot program known as RTS,S. The vaccine is being trialled in three African countries, including Kenya. But this vaccine is not yet widely available.

The efficacy of the R21 vaccine is 75 percent compared to the RTS,S vaccine, which is sold by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as Mosquirix, which is about 30 percent effective.

The RTS,S malaria vaccine is the result of three decades of research and development by GSK. The vaccine will be approved by WHO in 2021.

Scientists at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust in Kilifi are involved in the R21 vaccine trial and Ndungu is the lead investigator laboratory for the project.

“The WHO benchmark for a good vaccine is 75 per cent or more protection against clinical malaria and so we are very excited about the R21/Matrix-M vaccine, because this is actually the first vaccine to have surpassed the WHO benchmark for highly effective malaria vaccine,” said Francis Ndungu.

Ndungu said the ongoing phase three trial involved 4,800 children, his agency would report important data to WHO.

New Vaccine Gives Hope On World Malaria Day

According to the World Health Organization, 247 million people had malaria in 2021 and that year alone malaria killed 619,000 people.

Most cases of malaria are on the African continent, 96 percent of all deaths in this region occur in children under the age of five.

Malaria is found in many tropical countries and is spread to humans by the female Anopheles mosquito. This deadly disease has symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, fatigue, confusion, convulsions and difficulty breathing. Pregnant women, children under five years old, people with HIV/AIDS are at high risk of contracting it.

This disease can be prevented with medication and by avoiding mosquito bites through actions such as sleeping in mosquito nets. [my/lt]