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Kenya, Ghana and Malawi are set to take part in a World Health Organisation (WHO) coordinated Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP).
The MVIP will make the world’s first malaria vaccine available in select areas, beginning in 2018.
The World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa (WHO/Afro) announced yesterday that the injectable vaccine, RTS,S, was developed to protect young children from the most deadly form of malaria.
The vaccine will be assessed in the pilot programme as a complementary malaria control tool that could potentially be added to the core package of WHO-recommended measures for malaria prevention.
Great news
“The prospect of a malaria vaccine is great news. Information gathered in the pilot programme will help us make decisions on the wider use of this vaccine. Combined with existing malaria interventions, such a vaccine would have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in Africa,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Africa bears the greatest burden of malaria worldwide. Global efforts in the past 15 years have led to a 62 per cent reduction in malaria deaths between 2000 and 2015, yet approximately 429,000 people died of the disease in 2015, a majority of them being young children.
The WHO pilot programme will assess whether the vaccine’s protective effect in children aged between five and 17 months can be replicated in real life. It will also assess whether by delivering the required four doses of RTS,S, the vaccine has the potential to reduce childhood deaths and also determine its safety in the context of routine use.
RTS,S was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and is the first malaria vaccine to have successfully completed a Phase 3 clinical trial.
The trial was conducted between 2009 and 2014 through a partnership involving GSK, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), and a network of African research sites in seven African countries—including Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
According to Dr Moeti, the malaria vaccine will be administered via intramuscular injection and delivered through the routine national immunisation programmes.
He said while each of the three countries will decide on the districts and regions to be included in the pilot, high malaria burden areas will be prioritised. This is where the vaccine’s benefit is predicted to be highest. Information garnered from the pilot will help inform later decisions about potential wider use of the vaccine.
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