The World Health Organization has given the green light to use the first childhood malaria vaccine. WHO claims this is an important milestone in the fight against the disease, which is most prevalent in Africa. It took over 100 years to create an effective drug.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference that the approval of the vaccine is a breakthrough in the fight against malaria in Africa.
– The World Health Organization recommends the widespread use of the first such vaccine against malaria. This is the result of a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 800,000 children have received the vaccine in the past two years.
The vaccine was produced by the British concern GlaxoSmithKline. Work on this particular drug lasted 30 years, and scientists around the world have been working on the invention of a vaccine for over a hundred years.
The approved drug is only 30 percent effective, but it was approved because it is the only such product available.
Malaria is a disease that affects many more people in Africa than COVID-19. In 2019, at least 386 thousand inhabitants of the continent died from it. 94% of cases occur in Africa, and the majority of them are children. The disease is transmitted through mosquitoes.