Source: Global Times
The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the world's first malaria vaccine "RTS, S" on the 6th, and recommended that children in Africa and other high-risk areas be widely vaccinated to curb malaria transmission. According to the Associated Press reported on the 7th, although the effectiveness of this vaccine is only about 30%, scientists said that the approval of this vaccine is a "big progress" in human combat malaria and will "save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children".
Malaria is reported to be the highest rate of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 260,000 African children under the age of 5 dying each year. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, called the approval of the malaria vaccine "a historic moment". "This long-awaited childhood malaria vaccine is a breakthrough in science, child health and malaria control, and using this vaccine and existing means to prevent malaria will save tens of thousands of children's lives every year," Tedros said. ”
In recent years, research progress by WHO and its partners in the response to malaria infections has been slow and almost stagnant. WHO expert Crawioto said that because malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, it is not easy to develop a vaccine to prevent malaria. "We're dealing with very complex microbes," he says. We haven't been able to develop a highly effective malaria vaccine yet, but it's safe to administer now. ”
Clark, an expert at the Malaria Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said malaria vaccines were more effective for countries that could not use existing malaria control measures, such as mosquito nets and insecticides. Clark said: "There are countries where the weather is overheated and the children sleep directly outside, so there are no mosquito nets to protect them, and obviously if they are vaccinated, they can be protected." Ghani, an infectious disease specialist at Imperial College London, expects that vaccinating children will reduce malaria infections and deaths in Africa by 30% overall, that is, up to 8 million malaria infections and 40,000 deaths per year.
It is understood that WHO has started pilot vaccination of this malaria vaccine in 3 countries in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in 2019, and has now vaccinated more than 800,000 children in the local area with 2.3 million doses. Based on observations of vaccination results in pilot areas, WHO has made recommendations that the vaccine be widely vaccinated in selected areas. in Roche