This is a great scientific advance: the first anti-parasitic vaccine against malaria (malaria) will be able to be administered to children. The World Health Organization (WHO) has indeed recommended large-scale use of this serum developed by the British laboratory GSK (GlaxoSmithKline).
A “historic” advance
The World Health Organization has just announced the widespread use of the first malaria vaccine in children. According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this moment is “ historical. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children represents a breakthrough in science, child health and the fight against malaria. For the past two years, the RTS malaria vaccine, S / AS01 has been tested in several child health clinics in three African countries, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The serum fights one of the world’s deadliest parasites, the Plasmodium falciparum, which is transmitted by mosquitoes.
The product is effective in protecting against severe forms of the disease, because it reduces the viral load and its safety for the body is strong. On the other hand, when carrying out the pilot projects, the professionals concluded that the number of severe and fatal cases of malaria is reduced by around 30%.
A child dies of malaria every two minutes
There are tools to fight malaria, such as the insecticide-treated mosquito net. However, scientists have come up against a problem in recent years, mosquitoes are becoming more and more resistant. The vaccine therefore complements this and other means of prevention. Malaria is at the heart of research and is the subject of numerous donations, because it is the first parasitic endemic in the world, according to the Institut Pasteur.
In fact, malaria causes more than 400,000 deaths per year, including 260,000 victims in African children under the age of five each year. They are the most vulnerable group to the disease, as they account for 61% of malaria deaths globally. As the WHO reveals, malaria remains “ one of the main causes of childhood illnesses and death in sub-Saharan Africa. ”
To date, more than 2.3 million doses of the malaria vaccine have been administered, representing approximately 800,000 children living in areas with moderate to high transmission. In fact, children from the age of 5 months need 4 doses of the malaria vaccine to reduce the amount of pathogen in the blood. The serum therefore represents immense hope, because “ Using this vaccine alongside existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives every year. “
