9 new African countries to receive millions of malaria vaccines

Global vaccine alliance GAVI said on Wednesday 12 countries in Africa would receive 18 million doses of malaria vaccine over the next two years, expanding access to the shots to nine new countries in the region.

Malaria remains one of the continent's deadliest diseases, killing nearly half a million children each year under the age of five. In 2021, Africa accounted for about 95 per cent of global malaria cases and 96 per cent of deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the RTS,S [malaria] vaccine," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing. He noted that a second malaria vaccine was under review for pre-qualification and if successful, could provide additional supply in the short term.

Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been receiving the RTS,S vaccine since 2019 as part of a pilot program funded by GAVI and more than 1.7 million children in the countries have received it, GAVI, UNICEF and WHO said in a joint statement.

The nine new countries set to receive the vaccine, developed by British drug-maker GSK, are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

The first doses of the RTS,S vaccine are expected to reach the 12 African countries during the last quarter of 2023, allowing them to start rolling out vaccines by early next year.

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