A world-first malaria vaccination campaign began yesterday, sparking hopes that the mosquito-borne illness will one day be eradicated.
Almost 30million jabs will be dished out over the next few months in sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Cameroon.
Over a dozen countries, including Uganda, Kenya and Ghana, are gearing up to embark on their own vaccination drives in 2024.
Top experts hailed the roll-out as a milestone in the decades-long quest to thwart malaria, an illness that kills 600,000 people every year.
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Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Early warning signs can include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and nausea.
With treatment, most cases are not fatal. Yet in the severe stage, the disease quickly leads to death.
Two malaria jabs have been approved in the last three years. Cameroon’s roll-out involves Mosquirix, developed by GlaxoSmithKline. It has already been rolled out to almost two million children in countries including Ghana, Kenya and Malawi under pilot programmes.
While the trial schemes began in Burkina Faso and Mali in 2017 and in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi in 2018 to assess the best method and time of year for administering the vaccine, it did not receive approval until 2021, allowing it to be used in a full roll-out.
Studies showed the jab, given alongside antimalarial drugs before the rainy season, slashed the number of malaria deaths and severe cases in children by almost two-thirds.
Malaria epidemics can often occur after periods of unusually heavy rainfall.
A similarly-effective second jab developed by scientists at Oxford University and produced by the Serum Institute of India is set to be delivered in seven countries from May or June.
Professor Umberto D’Alessandro, Director of the Medical Research Council Gambia (MRCG) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said: “Making the vaccine available as a routine vaccination is only possible thanks to decades of work by researchers in Africa working with international partners, with clinical trials at MRCG at LSHTM starting back in 1997.
“The support of volunteers and communities both in The Gambia and the region has been vital in showing that Mosquirix, the world’s first malaria vaccine, was safe and could save lives.”
She said it ‘can be rolled out across malaria-prone regions worldwide and help to revive malaria control efforts that had recently stalled’.
Globally in 2022, there were an estimated 249million malaria cases and 608,000 deaths in 85 countries.
Approximately 40million children live in countries affected by malaria and in 2021, 80 per cent of cases detected in the Africa region were among children under five years old.
Kids, as well as pregnant women and travelers with no immunity to the malaria-causing parasite, are at the highest risk of severe infection and death.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended a schedule of four doses in children from around five months of age, with all four to be completed within two years of birth.
A fifth dose will be considered after one year in areas of high risk.
Health officials hope to line up malaria vaccinations with other jabs, including measles, to help increase uptake.
More than 30 countries across the continent have expressed an interest in receiving malaria jabs.
Up to 18million doses of the Mosquirix vaccine are set to be distributed by Gavi, with an extra 10million from the second jab, R21, from mid-2024.
A third of a million doses were delivered to Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, in November to allow time for health authorities in the West African nation to train healthcare workers in the storage and delivery of the vaccine.
Mosquirix works by inducing an immune response to an antigen found on the surface of the plasmodium falciparum, the parasite injected by female Anopheles mosquitoes into the bloodstream.
GSK has said it can only produce around 15 million doses of Mosquirix per year.
Some experts believe the second R21 jab, approved by the WHO last October, may be a more practical solution.
That vaccine is cheaper, requires three doses and India’s Serum Institute said they could make up to 200million doses a year.
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