GENEVA: Nearly 10 million malaria vaccine doses were delivered to Africa during the first year of routine immunisation being rolled out across the continent, the Gavi vaccine alliance said Wednesday.
The mosquito-borne disease kills nearly 600,000 people a year, the vast majority in Africa, with children heavily affected, according to the world health organization.
In a pilot phase from 2019 to 2023, more than two million children were jabbed with the RTS,S vaccine in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, resulting in substantial reductions in severe malaria illness and hospitalisations.
The pilot also resulted in a 13-percent drop in mortality, said Who, which now recommends RTS,S alongside R21/Matrix-M to vaccinate against malaria.
Following the pilot, routine malaria vaccination was rolled out in those three countries and 14 others, starting in Cameroon in January 2024.
Gavi said more than 9.8 million doses had since been delivered, estimating that five million children have received a degree of protection.
The programme aims to administer four vaccine doses to each child, which, Gavi said, stressing that it was seeking to “consistently reach those at highest risk in every country”.
It hailed “promising early results” from Cameroon, with reduced deaths in children under five.
“In a high-burden country like Cameroon, where malaria claims more than 13,000 lives each year and represents close to 30 percent of all hospital consultations, each percentage point reduction in cases, deaths and consultations represents lives transformed,” said Gavi chief Sania Nishtar.
