WHO To Test New Malaria Vaccine in Africa

The World Health Organization has announced that they will be testing a new Malaria vaccine on a large scale in various African countries within the coming year.

According to WHO’s regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the vaccine trials will begin next year in 2018, and last until 2020.

The WHO also said that their aim is to vaccinate 360 000 children in this two-year period.

The countries where the new vaccine trials will take place, are African countries that have been hit hard by Malaria epidemics in the past. These countries include Malawi, Ghana and Kenya.

The vaccine, called RTS,S, is an injectable vaccine that is to be used alongside other preventative measures such as mosquito nets, insect repellents and other, antimalarial drugs.

“Combined with existing malaria interventions, such a vaccine would have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in Africa [sic]…The prospect of a malaria vaccine is great news. Information gathered in the pilot will help us make decisions on the wider use of this vaccine,” Moeti said.

The vaccine was developed in the UK by British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline. It is also known as ‘Mosquirix’, and has been used in previous scientific testing.

The previous three-phase clinical trial the drug was used in, was from 2009-2014, afterwhich it was approved for the trials in the African countries, starting in 2018.

Malaria has been a leading disease-like killer in Africa for years. In 2015, 429 000 people died of the disease – most of them being children under the age of five, and 92% of them being African.