By Maame Takyi – The World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO)) have announced that Ghana, Kenya and Malawi will be taking part in a pilot implementation programme that will make the world’s first malaria vaccine available by 2018.
This programme will be tested to see if the vaccine’s protective effect can be used on children aged 5 to 17 months old in real-life to reduce childhood deaths.
The greatest effect of malaria worldwide is felt most in Africa. Global malaria prevention research have resulted in 62 percent reduction of deaths between 2000 and 2015 saving many lives, especially that of young children.
The WHO is working with these 3 countries to facilitate the vaccine for the use in the pilot through the African Vaccine Regulatory Forum. Support from the regulatory will also include measure and monitor of the vaccine.
Each of the three countries, Ghana, Malawi and Kenya will decide on what district and region they want to be included in the malaria vaccine pilot programme. According to the World Malaria report, the rate of the new malaria dropped by 21% between 2010 and 2015. Malaria death rates decreased by 29% in the same year. The death rates in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 21%.
Other organisations have partnered with the WHO, they include: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and UNIAID to provide $49.2 million for the first phase of the pilot programme (2017 – 2020).
Africa bears the greatest burden of malaria worldwide. In 2015, about 429,000 people died of the disease and the majority of them were young children.
