WHO recommends new malaria vaccine

Published

11 months ago

October 2, 2023

The World Health Organisation has recommended a new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, for the prevention of malaria in children.

The recommendation follows advice from the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group and was endorsed by the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, following its regular biannual meeting held on September 25 -29.

The global health body disclosed this on Monday, in a press statement.

In April, Nigeria became the second country to approve the R21 malaria vaccine, after Ghana.

The R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured and scaled up by the Serum Institute of India, is only the second vaccine the world has seen for a disease that has caused untold suffering for millennia.

WHO also issued recommendations on the advice of SAGE for new vaccines for dengue and meningitis, along with immunisation schedules and product recommendations for COVID-19.

WHO also issued key immunisation programmatic recommendations on polio, Immunisation Agenda 2030, and recovering the immunisation programme.

The R21 vaccine is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, following the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which received a WHO recommendation in 2021.

“Both vaccines are shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when implemented broadly, are expected to have high public health impact,” the statement read partly.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, places a particularly high burden on children in the African Region, where nearly half a million children die from the disease each year.

WHO said the demand for malaria vaccines is unprecedented; however, available supply of RTS,S/AS01 vaccine is limited.

In response to the high demand for the first-ever malaria vaccine, 12 countries in Africa were in July allocated a total of 18 million doses of RTS,S/AS01 for the 2023–2025 period.

The allocations were made to Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

However, the addition of R21 to the list of WHO-recommended malaria vaccines is expected to result in sufficient vaccine supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk.

“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,” said Dr Ghebreyesus. “Demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds supply, so this second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future.”

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, emphasised the importance of this recommendation for the continent, saying: “This second vaccine holds real potential to close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease.”

At least 28 countries in Africa plan to introduce a WHO-recommended malaria vaccine as part of their national immunisation programmes.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has approved providing technical and financial support to roll out malaria vaccines to 18 countries.

WHO also noted that the RTS,S vaccine will be rolled out in some African countries in early 2024, and the R21 malaria vaccine is expected to become available to countries in mid-2024.

According to Moeti, Nigeria has seen major progress but accounts for around 27 per cent of the global burden of malaria cases.

Moeti noted that Nigeria’s malaria incidence has fallen by 26 per cent since 2000, from 413 per 1000 to 302 per 1000 in 2021, and malaria deaths also fell by 55 per cent, from 2.1 per 1000 population to 0.9 per 1000 population.

“Drivers of this continuing disease burden include the size of Nigeria’s population, making scaling up intervention challenging; suboptimal surveillance systems, which pick up less than 40 per cent of the country’s malaria data; inadequate funding to ensure universal interventions across all states; and health-seeking behaviour, where people use the private sector, with limited regulation, preferentially,” she stated.

News

Presidential Spokesman Goes On Indefinite Leave of Absence

Published

23 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Ezekiel Tijani

Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media & Publicity, has announced an indefinite leave of absence.

This decision comes after consulting with his family due to a worsening medical situation at home. Ngelale submitted a memo to the Chief of Staff on Friday, notifying him of his leave.

Ngelale’s leave affects his roles as Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action and Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen.

He expressed hope to return to full-time national service when circumstances permit. The leave of absence takes effect immediately, with no specified date for his return.

“I look forward to returning to full-time national service when time, healing, and fate permit,” Ngelale said. He respectfully asked for privacy for his family during this challenging time.

One Of God’s Power Brokers, I’m Immune From Harm, Tragedy Or Untimely Death — Dr Chris Okafor

Published

1 week ago

August 29, 2024

roamannews

Founder and senior pastor of the Grace Nation Church International, Dr Chris Okafor says his status as one of God’s major power brokers makes him immune from any untoward and unsavoury happenstances that could question his dedication and commitment to His service as an anointed minister.

According to him, his confidence derives from the immortal words taken from the Bible in Hebrews 11: 6 which says God is a “rewarder of those who dutifully and diligently serve him.”

The cleric, while expounding on the message, “Benefits of Soul-Winning” during a recent Sunday service said he had never at any time in his over 20-year work with God had cause to worry or fret over his safety or of those related to him because he considers himself immune from the buffettings of the devil and his children of wickedness.

This, he says, is because he has reached a level in his walk with God that he can be referred to as a power broker who must necessarily enjoy God’s protection at all times and in all ramifications.

“This might sound presumptuous to some people for me to say I’m a power broker in God’s kingdom. But when you have been privileged to be the conduit through which God’s virtues of prophecies, healing and deliverances have flowed all through the years, it is only right to state the obvious,” he said.

“The Bible is clear about the benefits that accrue to those who win souls to God’s kingdom. See, nothing God values more than soul winning. Soul-winning is to God what money is to man. I have come to discover that when we diligently apply ourselves to serving God in truth and in spirit, particularly working assiduously to ensure that we win souls to His kingdom, He pays our bills. He blesses us, he shields us from untoward happenings, and all kinds of tragedies and calamities.

“Above all, he makes us fruitful and elongates our lives. The scripture cannot be broken. God’s words in Exodus 23: 25 -26 remains true even till this day. It says, “So you shall serve the Lord, your God and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

“No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”

“God has confirmed that scripture in my life on several occasions. A lot of people are aware how I survived a hail of bullets that ripped through the car I was traveling in when I was kidnapped on my way from a crusade in the eastern part of Nigeria some years ago.

“I survived more than 50 days of captivity in those kidnappers’ den. In all of that time, most people, including members of my congregation had given me up for dead. Yet, through God’s hands of mercy, I was rescued and I am still alive today, more than over a decade after the incident.

“What about another time I survived a plane crash? I was in a flight returning from one of the foreign crusades I went some years ago when our aircraft developed a fault. The situation was so bad that the plane was falling and plummeting dangerously towards the earth. Infact, we were already seeing the ground as everyone was in a distressed mood, calling for God’s intervention.

“I had stood up, and prayed a simple prayer, reminding God that no one who diligently served Him should see untimely and an unwarranted death. He heard me and we were all saved on that occasion.

“So, as a power broker — one who has offered himself as a vessel of honour for God’s wondrous works time and time again, it will be out of character for me to experience any form of harm, tragedy or untimely death,” he added.