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Ifeanyi Ibe
Nigeria is not a beneficiary of the 18 million doses of the first-ever RTS,SS/AS01 malaria vaccine that will be administered in twelve countries across the African region for the period 2023-2025.
This was contained in a joint press statement released by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organisation, and the United Nations Children’s Fund on Wednesday.
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According to the statement, “Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have been delivering the malaria vaccine through the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, coordinated by WHO and funded by Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid.
“The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019 and has been shown to be safe and effective, resulting in a substantial reduction in severe malaria and a fall in child deaths. At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the malaria vaccine.
“In addition to Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, the initial 18 million-dose allocation will enable nine more countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, to introduce the vaccine into their routine immunisation programmes for the first time.”
It is expected that the first doses of the vaccine will arrive in the countries during the last quarter of 2023, with countries starting to roll them out by early 2024.
The statement further noted that this allocation round makes use of the supply of vaccine doses available to Gavi through UNICEF.
The allocations have been determined through the application of the principles outlined in the framework for allocation of limited malaria vaccine supply that prioritises those doses to areas of highest need, where the risk of malaria illness and death among children are highest.
The Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, Thabani Maphosa said, “This vaccine has the potential to be very impactful in the fight against malaria, and when broadly deployed alongside other interventions, it can prevent tens of thousands of future deaths every year.
“While we work with manufacturers to help ramp up supply, we need to make sure the doses that we do have are used as effectively as possible, which means applying all the learnings from our pilot programmes as we broaden out to a new total of 12 countries.”
Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, killing nearly half a million children each year under the age of five, and accounting for approximately 95 per cent of global malaria cases and 96 per cent of deaths in 2021.
Associate Director of Immunisation, Ephrem Lemango said, “Nearly every minute, a child under five years old dies of malaria.
“For a long time, these deaths have been preventable and treatable; but the roll-out of this vaccine will give children, especially in Africa, an even better chance at surviving. As supply increases, we hope even more children can benefit from this life-saving advancement.”
The WHO Director of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, Dr Kate O’Brien, noted that the malaria vaccine is a breakthrough to improve child health and child survival, families and communities.
She said “This first allocation of malaria vaccine doses is prioritised for children at highest risk of dying of malaria. The high demand for the vaccine and the strong reach of childhood immunisation will increase equity in access to malaria prevention and save many young lives. We will work tirelessly to increase supply until all children at risk have access.”
