The World Health Organisation has welcomed the launch by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, of the landmark opportunity for countries to apply for funding to introduce, or further roll-out, the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine.
Since the world’s first malaria vaccine was introduced in 2019, it has been well accepted in African communities after a relatively short period of time. Demand is high even in the context of Covid-19: vaccination performance for the first dose is reaching between 73% to over 90% coverage, depending on the country, with no major disruptions during the pandemic.
Following WHO’s recommendation in October 2021 for widespread use of the RTS,S malaria vaccine among children in regions with moderate to highmalaria transmission, a number of malaria-endemic countries have expressed interest in adopting the vaccine and are expected to apply for Gavi support to introduce the vaccine.which is the deadliest malaria parasite and the most prevalent on the African continent.
“Malaria has devastated communities for far too long in Africa. We know that initially, supply, will not meet demand, nevertheless, we look forward to working with countries and our partners to introduce and scale this new tool in our fight against malaria, which could save the lives of thousands of children across the continent,” says Thabani Maphosa, MD of country programmes at Gavi.
Over the next few years, the supply of the RTS,S malaria vaccine will be insufficient to meet the needs of over 25 million children born each year in areas where the vaccine is recommended, according to a WHO-commissioned global market study. Should a second malaria vaccine complete clinical development successfully and be approved for use, the period of constrained supply could be shorter. The demand is estimated to range from 80-million to 100-million doses annually.