After decades of research and testing, a new malaria vaccine is being rolled out across West Africa in a pioneering trial to eliminate the disease, the second-leading killer of children on the continent.
As part of the trial, Cameroonian health workers gathered infants and children under five on January 22, 2023, to give them their first doses of the RTS,S vaccine, developed by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and the nonprofit health organization PATH. The vaccine’s name, RTS,S, refers to the genes of the parasite from which the vaccine was made.
The World Health Organization approved the second vaccine, R21, in December last year, and it is likely to be available within months. This vaccine is already being used in some African countries, with Ghana being the first to approve it last year.
The vaccines were developed as part of a global campaign to eradicate malaria, a disease that can be fatal to children and pregnant women, noting that all of the more than 200 million annual cases of the disease in the world occur in African countries.
How do vaccines work?
Although the search for a malaria vaccine has been ongoing since the 1980s and trials date back to 2004, the World Health Organization recommended the RTS,S vaccine in 2021 as part of the vaccination certification process. The organization has officially approved the use of the vaccine, which has an efficacy rate of 75%.
The vaccine, called Mosquirix, is designed to activate antibodies and target the infectious stage of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria and is spread by female Anopheles mosquitoes when they bite a person.
The R21 vaccine, or Matrix-M, is the second malaria vaccine approved by the World Health Organization in December 2023. It was developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
How dangerous is malaria?
Severe malaria can cause complications such as organ failure and can lead to death. It is also the second leading cause of child mortality in Africa after respiratory diseases, with nearly half a million children dying from malaria in African countries each year.
This disease is particularly deadly for children because they are less likely to build up any immunity to it.
Pregnant women in the second and third trimesters are particularly vulnerable to malaria because of their low levels of immunity. People visiting high-transmission areas from malaria-free areas are also at risk because they lack any built-up immunity gained from living in endemic areas.
Why are African countries so vulnerable to malaria?
A combination of factors, including weather patterns, poor sanitation and hygiene, and weak public health care systems, contribute to the continent bearing almost all of the malaria burden.
Malaria thrives in tropical regions, where climatic conditions allow the female Anopheles mosquito to successfully produce malaria parasites in its saliva, which it transmits to humans when it bites them. Moist, waterlogged areas are also a favorite breeding ground for the parasites. As a result, malaria transmission rates tend to be higher during the rainy season.
Some analysts describe malaria as a “disease of the poor.” Families living in mosquito-infested environments who cannot afford chemically treated bed nets or insecticides often bear the brunt of the disease. Treatments can be expensive.
Which African countries have eliminated malaria?
So far, 3 African countries have successfully eliminated malaria: Mauritius (1973), Algeria (2019), and Cape Verde, which was declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization last month after reporting no transmission for 3 consecutive years.
Can malaria be eliminated worldwide?
Eliminating malaria everywhere in the world may be possible, but not with vaccines alone.
American billionaire Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft software company, who has allocated billions of dollars to malaria research through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, expects malaria to be eradicated by 2040, based on country-level eradication targets.
As Crystal Perungi said, Entomologist at Target Malaria Working to develop genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce malaria, Al Jazeera said the new vaccines were a “huge breakthrough” and would provide a major boost to the global campaign to eradicate malaria, but they would not be effective on their own.
“Research has shown that there is no single tool that can be a silver bullet against malaria,” she added. “It is still essential to use existing tools, such as insecticide sprays, long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, and antimalarial drugs, as well as to continue developing new tools such as genetically modified mosquitoes and gene drives to combat malaria.”
Gene drive, also called gene drive, is a genetic engineering technique that allows a specific gene to be transferred in a preferential manner to the next generation through the process of sexual reproduction.