Mosquirix: First malaria vaccine gets WHO's backing
Geneva/IBNS: The World Health Organisation has endorsed the first-ever Malaria vaccine - Mosquirix - proven to have the capability of considerably reducing malaria, and fatal malaria, in studies conducted on young African children.
The vaccine is effective against P. falciparum, the most life-threatening malaria parasite across the world, and the most rampant in Africa.
The children who received the four doses of the vaccine in large-scale clinical trials showed it prevented approximately 4 in 10 cases of malaria over a 4-year period.
Over 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have been vaccinated under the childhood immunization programmes of these countries conducted by their health ministries as pilot programmes.
Recently, other clinical trials have shown that strategic delivery of the vaccine immediately before the high malaria transmission season in places where malaria is highly seasonal can deliver the highest impact and significantly reduce mortality when combined with other proven effective malaria control measures.
Children below 5 years are highly vulnerable to malaria. In 2019, they accounted for 67 percent (274,000) of all malaria deaths globally.
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