WHO selects Ghana, two other African countries for malaria vaccine trials
The World Health Organisation (WHO) today announced it will start trials of a malaria vaccine in three African countries including Ghana.
The WHO Regional Office for Africa says Ghana, Malawi and Kenya will take part in the WHO-coordinated pilot implementation programme that will make the world’s first malaria vaccine available in selected areas, beginning in 2018.
According to the WHO, the injectable vaccine, RTS,S, was developed to protect young children from the most deadly form of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum.
The three countries, the WHO says were selected to participate in the pilot based on the following criteria: high coverage of long-lasting insecticidal-treated nets (LLINs); well-functioning malaria and immunisation programmes, a high malaria burden even after scale-up of LLINs, and participation in the Phase III RTS,S malaria vaccine trial.
Each of the three countries will decide on the districts and regions to be included in the pilots. High malaria burden areas will be prioritized, as this is where the benefit of the vaccine is predicted to be highest. Information garnered from the pilot will help to inform later decisions about potential wider use of the vaccine, the organization added.
“RTS,S will be assessed in the pilot programme as a complementary malaria control tool that could potentially be added to the core package of WHO-recommended measures for malaria prevention,” it said.
Commenting, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said, “Combined with existing malaria interventions, such a vaccine would have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in Africa.”
Africa bears the biggest burden of malaria in the world.
The WHO notes that, while global efforts in the last 15 years have led to a 62 pe rcent reduction in malaria deaths between 2000 and 2015, approximately 429,000 people died of the disease in 2015, the majority of them young children in Africa.
Other sources indicate that malaria deaths constitute 90 per cent of the one million deaths in Africa out of the global figure of 36 million deaths occurring.
Malaria in Ghana
Ghana records 3.5 million cases of malaria every year
In 2015, Ghana reportedly recorded about 10 million cases of malaria, contributing 38.1 per cent of OPD cases.
GSK developed vaccine
The vaccine, RTS,S was developed by GSK and is the first malaria vaccine to have successfully completed a Phase III clinical trial. The trial was conducted between 2009 and 2014 through a partnership involving GSK, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and a network of African research sites in seven African countries—including Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
RTS,S is also the first malaria vaccine to have obtained a positive scientific opinion from a stringent medicines regulatory authority, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which approved RTS,S in July 2015, the WHO says.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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