Malaria incidents are on the rise. There were 249 million cases of this parasitic disease in 2022, five million more than in 2021. Africa suffers more than any other region from malaria, with 94% of cases and 95% of deaths worldwide.
This year two revolutionary malaria vaccines are being rolled out across the continent. Nadine Dreyer asks Jaishree Raman if 2024 will be the year the continent takes a significant leap towards beating the disease.
The RTS,S vaccine was the first to target a parasite. It was developed by the Walter Reed Army Research Institute after 30 years of intense research and approved by the World Health Organization in 2021.
What is special about it?
The long-awaited vaccine was described as a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control. It is being aimed at children under the age of 5, who make up about 80% of all malaria deaths in Africa.
A multi-country trial involving Ghana, Malawi and Kenya confirmed the safety of the vaccine, with limited side effects, a high level of acceptability among the affected communities, and the feasibility of a four-dose vaccine regime within a rural African healthcare setting.
Among children aged 5 and 17 months who received 4 doses of RTS,S, the vaccine prevented about 30% of them from developing severe malaria.
Although a 30% prevention rate might seem low, a recent study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in August 2023 showed that giving young children RTS,S alongside other antimalarial prevention treatments before the rainy season reduced malaria by nearly two-thirds.
How far along is the rollout?
Since 2019 more than 2 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been vaccinated with the RTS,S malaria vaccine.
The worlds first routine vaccine programme using the RTS,S started in Cameroon in January 2024. The country is offering the vaccine free of charge to all infants up to the age of six months. This has been described as a transformative chapter in Africas public health history.
About 18 million doses of the vaccine were allocated to 12 African countries. They are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
What are the holdups?
Since the WHO approved and prequalified the vaccine, demand has been unprecedented. The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, is unable to produce enough doses.
The vaccine and AS01 adjuvant, a chemical compound used to boost immune responses, have complex synthesis processes. This is whats limiting the projected vaccine production for the next two years to 18 million doses.
This is significantly lower than the estimated 60 million doses already pre-ordered by numerous countries were malaria is endemic.
After decades of vaccine research, a second malaria vaccine was approved just two years after the RTS,S vaccine. The R21/Matrix is a second-generation RTS,S vaccine. It was developed by Oxford Universitys Jenner Institute and approved by the WHO in October 2023.
Whats special about it?
The R21 vaccine is a significant improvement on the RTS,S vaccine, with 75% efficacy over a year.
The production process is much less complicated, which means it can be manufactured in vast amounts. The worlds largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, has already established production capacity for 100 million doses per annum. This is great news for 40 million children born every year in malaria areas in Africa.
The R21/Matrix M vaccine is very cost-effective, projected to retail at $2-$4 a dose, comparable in price to other childhood vaccines used in Africa.
How advanced is the rollout of the R21 vaccine?
Data from a clinical trial in 2020 involving 450 children aged between 5 and 36 months from Burkina Faso confirmed vaccine safety and protection against severe disease, with an efficacy of 77% after 12 months.
These very encouraging findings prompted several malaria-endemic African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria, to approve use of the R21/Matrix M vaccine well before the World Health Organization.
Oxford University took the proactive step of signing a manufacturing agreement with the Serum Institute of India even though WHO approval and prequalification had not been granted.
This forward-thinking approach has ensured that the first batches of the R21 vaccine will be available in the second half of this year.
The Serum Institute has committed to producing twice as many doses in 2025, alleviating some of the demand for the RTS,S vaccine, and ensuring vulnerable young African children in high burden areas receive protection against malaria.
What are the holdups?
Without WHO approval and prequalification, several international organisations, including Unicef and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, were unable to fund the procurement or production of the vaccine.
The WHO finally approved and prequalified R21/Matrix M for use in the last quarter of 2023.
This vaccine is due to be rolled out in several African countries from May 2024.
While the fight against malaria has been significantly bolstered by the availability of these vaccines, they are not the silver bullets that are going to get us to an Africa free of malaria.
They are, nonetheless, a welcome addition to the malaria elimination toolbox and ideally should be used together with other control strategies like long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, rapid diagnosis, and treatment with an effective antimalarial.
This will be the year that many vulnerable young African children will have access to not one, but two malaria vaccines.
Go here to read the rest:
- Booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech/BNT162b2 COVID19 vaccine | IDR - Dove Medical Press [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- Monkeypox vaccines have arrived in Victoria. Here's how the rollout will work - ABC News [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- UHD, H-E-B Offering Students Bacterial Meningitis Vaccine On Campus With Deferred Payment Option - UHD News [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- Vaccine effectiveness of two-dose BNT162b2 against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 among adolescents in Brazil and Scotland over time: a test-negative... [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- Japan plans booster shots of Omicron vaccine in October | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis - [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- EyeGene to conduct vaccine projects with government support - KBR [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- Monkeypox Vaccine: Where to Get It - countynewscenter.com [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- Vaccines for Covid-19 arent required in schools this fall - Vox.com [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2022]
- 600 in Wisconsin receive monkeypox vaccination, says health department - Green Bay Press Gazette [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- Effectiveness of third vaccine dose for coronavirus disease 2019 during the Omicron variant pandemic: a prospective observational study in Japan |... [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- Why Monkeypox Vaccine Shortage May Threaten the Immunocompromised - The New York Times [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- UK will run out of monkeypox vaccine in 10 to 20 days - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- New method of nasal vaccine delivery could lead to better vaccines for HIV and COVID-19 - UMN News [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- Phillys monkeypox vaccine shortages arent solved yet as feds make move to increase access to the shots - The Philadelphia Inquirer [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- Vaccines are now approved for children aged six months to five years, but what about newborn babies? - ABC News [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- Bottling the monkeypox vaccine could take until early 2023 - POLITICO [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- The Brazilian Scientists Inventing An mRNA Vaccine And Sharing The Recipe : Short Wave - NPR [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- 2,000 Monkeypox Vaccine Appointments Are Available in Chicago This Weekend. Here's How to Get One - NBC Chicago [Last Updated On: August 11th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 11th, 2022]
- 'Vaccine fatigue' could hit autumn Covid boosters | News | The Sunday Times - The Times [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- Q&A: The new COVID vaccine booster is coming. Should you get it? - The Lawton Constitution [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- Former CRH surgeon who survived polio disheartened by vaccination lapses - The Republic [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- 'Only the beginning': Hundreds protest Western University vaccine mandate - CBC.ca [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- Vaccine hesitancy and trust in health experts: Shifting the focus - Medical News Today [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- I Was There When: AI helped create a vaccine - MIT Technology Review [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- The USDA is sprinkling fish-flavored vaccines from the sky to fight rabies - CNN [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- COVID-19 Vaccines | FDA [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- Novavax COVID-19 vaccine available for ages 12 and up; CDC Community Level back at Low - Communications and Outreach - New Hanover County [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- Vaccine Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2022]
- National health agency apologises over Covid vaccine ads it was ordered to remove - RNZ [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Editorial: How Jewish space lasers and vaccine nanobots seized the brains of GOP voters - St. Louis Post-Dispatch [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Novel HER2-hICD Vaccine to be Investigated for Treatment of HER2-Low Breast Cancer - Targeted Oncology [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Brazilian Covid vaccine to be tested in humans in 2023 - The Brazilian Report [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- A Review on the Use of the HPV Vaccine in the Prevention of Cervical Cancer - Cureus [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- City Offering Second Doses of Monkeypox Vaccine to New Yorkers and Begin Accepting Walk-In Appointments - nyc.gov [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Monkeypox vax has disproportionately gone to white Philadelphians. This clinic sought to balance that. - The Philadelphia Inquirer [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Hopeful New Entry In The Race For A Universal Covid Vaccine - Forbes [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Study raises concerns about the effectiveness of the monkeypox vaccine - STAT [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- newsroom.heart.org [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- Did the affordable, no-patent COVID vaccine Corbevax live up to its promise? : Goats and Soda - NPR [Last Updated On: September 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 3rd, 2022]
- In CDC Survey of Over 13,000 Children, More Than Half Had 'Systemic Reaction' After COVID-19 Vaccine - The Epoch Times [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- Department of Health working with community to administer monkeypox vaccines - Honolulu Star-Advertiser [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- Fact check: Post-vaccine hospitalization odds not 3 times higher as ex-Japan PM claimed - The Mainichi - The Mainichi [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- Impact of vaccinia virus-based vaccines on the 2022 monkeypox virus outbreak - News-Medical.Net [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- Microsoft and Unicef drive Covid-19 vaccine roll-out with COVAX platform - Technology Record [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- School Mask, Vaccine Mandates Are Mostly Gone. But What if the Virus Comes Back? - The 74 [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- Immunogenicity and safety of an inactivated whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine (VLA2001) compared with the adenoviral vector vaccine ChAdOx1-S in adults in... [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2022]
- Getting a Grip on Influenza: The Pursuit of a Universal Vaccine (Part 4) - Forbes [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2022]
- Why So Few Young Kids Are Vaccinated against COVIDAnd How to Change That - Scientific American [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2022]
- UK Travel Vaccine Market Report 2022: Increasing Travel and Tourism & Growing Incidences of Infectious Diseases Fuel Sector -... [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2022]
- At long last, we might have an HIV vaccine - Big Think [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2022]
- The associations between vaccination status, type, and time since vaccination with lineage identity during the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants -... [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2022]
- Needle-less COVID-19 vaccine developed at Washington University approved for use in India - KSDK.com [Last Updated On: September 10th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 10th, 2022]
- Study: COVID-19 Vaccine Prevented Approximately 27 Million Infections in US Adults - Pharmacy Times [Last Updated On: September 10th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 10th, 2022]
- Health System Warns Exemptions to COVID Vaccines May Expire With New Options - Medpage Today [Last Updated On: September 10th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 10th, 2022]
- Does Moderna's vaccine IP lawsuit herald the end of the pandemic? - Medical Marketing and Media [Last Updated On: September 10th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 10th, 2022]
- The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Vaccine Policy The Wire Science - The Wire Science [Last Updated On: September 10th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 10th, 2022]
- Astrocytes, the Covid vaccine and the 2021 classification - Brain Tumour Research [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- Nearly 50 Members of Congress Call on Pentagon to End Military Vaccine Mandate - The Epoch Times [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- New Omicron-fighting Covid vaccine supplied with flimsy needles across Scotland to get replacement syringes - STV News [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- Is There A Minimum Age for the Shingles Vaccine? - Healthline [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- Detection of circulating vaccine derived polio virus 2 (cVDPV2) in environmental samples the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and... [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- 850 more unvaxxed NYC teachers, aides fired for not complying with mandate - New York Post [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- 'India's vaccine growth story' book review: Far from being a dry collection of facts and figures - The New Indian Express [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- Health care workers appeal dismissal of lawsuit over Maine's vaccine mandate - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2022]
- Department of Health Expands Eligibility for the Monkeypox Vaccine - Anne Arundel County Department of Health [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Could This Be Pfizer's Next Billion-Dollar Vaccine? - The Motley Fool [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Many Vaccinated Youth Who Suffered Heart Inflammation Had Abnormal MRI Results Months Later: CDC Study - The Epoch Times [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Second vaccine doses to be offered to those at highest risk from monkeypox - GOV.UK [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Structure of the malaria vaccine candidate Pfs48/45 and its recognition by transmission blocking antibodies - Nature.com [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Coronavirus Roundup: A CDC Team Is Honored for Its Vaccine Distribution Work - GovExec.com [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Everything to know about the Monkeypox vaccine | Health - Red and Black [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- The U.S. ordered 171 million updated COVID booster shots but only 4.4 million went into arms as Biden says the pandemic is over - Fortune [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Why mosquitoes were the vaccinators in a new malaria vaccine trial : Goats and Soda - NPR [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Lyme disease is on the rise. Why is there still no vaccine? - AAMC [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2022]
- Government of Canada announces funding for advancements in mRNA vaccine technology at the University of British Columbia - Canada NewsWire [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2022]
- 130 people have received incorrect doses of COVID-19 vaccines: MOH - CNA [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2022]
- Health unit hosts pop-up vaccine clinics throughout the week - BradfordToday [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2022]
- Doctor who gave anti-vaccine speech in front of effigies of officials being hanged faces discipline hearing - CBC.ca [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2022]
- What's really happening with global vaccine access? - Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2022]
- Study confirms link between COVID-19 vaccination and temporary increase in menstrual cycle length - National Institutes of Health (.gov) [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2022]