WHO Approves World's First Vaccine Against Mosquito-Borne Disease Malaria

More than half of malaria deaths worldwide are in six sub-Saharan African countries and almost a quarter are in Nigeria alone, according to 2019 WHO figures.

Civic worker fumigates streets in Mumbai a preventive measure against malaria and dengue. (AFP Photo)

New Delhi: The World Health Organisation had approved the first-ever vaccine for malaria, RTS,S/AS01. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly African children.

Before making the decision WHO reviewed a pilot programme deployed since 2019 in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in which more than two million doses were given of the vaccine, first made by the pharmaceutical company GSK in 1987.

According to AFP, after reviewing evidence from these countries, the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said WHO was "recommending the broad use of the world's first malaria vaccine".

The agency said that every two minutes, a child dies of malaria. More than half of malaria deaths worldwide are in six sub-Saharan African countries and almost a quarter are in Nigeria alone, according to 2019 WHO figures.

WHO recommends children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high malaria transmission get four doses up to the age of two.

The vaccine acts against plasmodium falciparum -- one of five malaria parasite species and the most deadly, AFP reported. 

"From a scientific perspective this is a massive breakthrough," said Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme. The WHO also hopes this latest recommendation will encourage scientists to develop more malaria vaccines.

The RTS,S/AS01 is "a first-generation, really important one," said Alonso, "but we hope... it stimulates the field to look for other types of vaccines to complement or go beyond this one."

Symptoms of malaria include fever, headaches and muscle pain, then cycles of chills, fever and sweating.