The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease.<\/b>
\nLONDON \u2014 The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the world\u2019s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it \u201ca historic moment\u201d after a meeting in which two of the U.N. health agency\u2019s expert advisory groups recommended the step. \u201cToday\u2019s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent, which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease. And we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults,\u201d said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO\u2019s Africa director. WHO said its decision was based largely on results from ongoing research in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that tracked more than 800,000 children who have received the vaccine since 2019. The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline in 1987. While it\u2019s the first to be authorized, it does face challenges: The vaccine is only about 30% effective, it requires up to four doses and its protection fades after several months. Still, scientists say the vaccine could have a major impact against malaria in Africa, home to most of the world\u2019s more than 200 million cases and 400,000 deaths per year, \u201cThis is a huge step forward,\u201d said Julian Rayner, director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, who was not part of the WHO decision. \u201cIt\u2019s an imperfect vaccine, but it will still stop hundreds of thousands of children from dying.\u201d Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, head of the WHO vaccine group that made the recommendation, said designing a shot against malaria was particularly difficult because it is a parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes. \u201cWe\u2019re confronted with extraordinarily complex organisms,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not yet in reach of a highly efficacious vaccine, but what we have now is a vaccine that can be deployed and that is safe.\u201d Azra Ghani, chair of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said she and colleagues estimate that giving the malaria vaccine to children in Africa might result in a 30% reduction overall, with up to 8 million fewer cases and as many as 40,000 fewer deaths per year. \u201cFor people not living in malaria countries, a 30% reduction might not sound like much. But for the people living in those areas, malaria is one of their top concerns,\u201d Ghani said. \u201cA 30% reduction will save a lot of lives and will save mothers (from) bringing in their children to health centers and swamping the health system.\u201d<\/p>\n