More than 650,000 children have been vaccinated against malaria across Kenya, Ghana and Malawi since the start of the pilot project two years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday.
Global immunization and malaria advisory bodies are expected to meet in October to review vaccine data and consider whether to recommend wider use.
The RTS, S vaccine is the only existing jab shown to reduce malaria in children. It acts against Plasmodium falciparum – the deadliest malaria parasite globally and the most common in Africa.
Progress against malaria has stalled for several years and the ongoing pandemic is another obstacle.
The WHO’s World Malaria Report 2020 said that progress towards mosquito-borne disease was plateauing, especially in African countries bearing the brunt of falls and deaths.
The annual report, published in November, said that after steadily tumbling from 736,000 in 2000, the disease claimed an estimated 411,000 lives in 2018 and 409,000 in 2019.
Meanwhile, the global number of malaria cases in 2019 was estimated at 229 million – a figure that has been at the same level for the past four years.
Over 90% of malaria deaths occur in Africa, the majority – more than 265,000 – in young children.
The WHO said that clinical trials had shown that RTS, the S vaccine, when given in four doses, prevented four out of ten cases of malaria and three out of ten cases of life-threatening severe malaria over a four-year period.
“Ghana, Kenya and Malawi show that existing childhood vaccination platforms can effectively deliver malaria vaccine to children, some of whom have not been able to access an insecticide-treated bed net or other malaria prevention measures,” said Kate O’Brien, WHO Director of Immunization.
“This vaccine could be the key to making malaria prevention fairer and saving more lives.”
