The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the approved vaccines against malaria should be widely administered to the children in Africa, since the disease has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Africa in the previous years. The vaccination roll out is potentially a major advance against malaria in African countries.
A vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, a drug developer from United Kingdom, namely RTS,S , commonly known as Mosquirix , was recommended by the organisation.
WHO had coordinated a large scale pilot program to vaccinate the children in Africa, in 2019. Over 2.3 million doses of Mosquirix have been given to infants and children in countries like Ghana, Kenya and Malawi since then.
The disease severely affects children under the age of 5, making child fatalities the majority of the deaths that occur due to malaria. Clinical trials were conducted for a decade in seven African countries, prior to the inoculation programme.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation said that they were proud of their vaccination programme as the vaccine was developed in Africa by African scientists.
He added that they could save tens of thousands of young lives every year, using that vaccine along with the measures already used to prevent malaria in Africa.
Malaria is far more fatal than the coronavirus in Africa. In 2019, the disease killed 386,000 people in the continent, according to the data from World Health Organisation.
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