The World Health Organization (WHO) this Monday recommended a new malaria vaccine to prevent the disease in children. The injection, called R21/Matrix-M, and developed by the University of Oxford, is the second recommended by the international organization, after RTS,S/AS01, which received the support of the institution in 2021.
The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine will be available to countries in mid-2025, and doses will cost between two and four dollars (1.9 and 3.8 euros), according to the WHO.
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This disease, transmitted by the bite of a mosquito, affected 247 million people in 2021. Its worst effects occur in Africa, where it kills almost half a million children each year. In 2021, it left 619,000 dead in the world, 96% on the African continent. Almost two years ago, in October 2021, the WHO recommended the use of the first malaria vaccine in children, RTS,S (Mosquirix) against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest parasite and the most common in Africa. The two vaccines have shown similar effectiveness in laboratory tests, according to the WHO, so each country will decide which immunization to choose depending on its availability and price. “Today is a great day for health, a great day for science and a great day for vaccines,” celebrated the director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, on his social networks.
The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine had already been approved for use last April in Ghana, the first country in the world to take this step. The Serum Institute of India will be responsible for the production of the injection. His CEO, Adar Poonawalla, announced in statements to the Reuters agency that his laboratory has already produced 20 million doses, anticipating the official recommendation of the WHO. “We believe that by the end of 2024 there will be no imbalance between demand and supply, with the arrival of our supply.”
The WHO has also recommended this Monday the dengue vaccine called Qdenga, which can be administered to children between six and 16 years old in areas where this disease is endemic.
The worst emergency in 20 years
This is an especially significant moment in the fight against malaria around the world. After decades of progress in reducing infections and deaths—up to a 45% drop in mortality between 2005 and 2019, thanks to the introduction of vaccines and insecticide-treated bed nets, a method that has managed to prevent 68% of cases since the 1990s—progress is slowing and current challenges are increasing. At the UN issued a warning in August, highlighting that progress against malaria has been reversed in at least 13 countries and has stalled in some others, especially since 2015. Among the problems facing science is mosquito resistance to insecticides carriers of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which causes 90% of deaths in the world; the fact that rapid diagnostic tests are becoming obsolete and that the risks associated with climate change, such as increases in temperature, cyclones and floods, multiply the risk of the spread of malaria, in addition to other evils, such as cholera or polio.
Last month, African Union heads of state and government and global health leaders at the United Nations General Assembly warned that we are facing “the largest malaria emergency in the last two decades” and called for urgent action to alleviate it. Dr. Michael Adekunle Charles, executive director of RBM Partnership to End Malaria, a global platform that fights the disease, said in a statement that the current emergency is due to “health pressures such as the covid-19 pandemic and the recession.” global economy.
In July, the first malaria vaccine was included in the immunization schedules of 12 African countries, but the WHO warned of insufficient supply of this vaccine to satisfy the 25 million children born each year in countries where malaria is endemic.
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2023-10-02 18:11:27
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