As part of strategies to reduce malaria, especially in endemic communities in Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has endorsed the use of vaccines to prevent the disease among children aged six months to five years.
While highlighting the devastating impact of the malaria scourge which was estimated to have risen to 228 million cases in Africa, with 602, 020 reported deaths, WHO expressed concern that the newly developed vaccine were of limited supply to countries that needed it.
In its message to mark World Malaria Day 2022, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said there was an urgent need to scale up the use of vaccine against malaria.
She said: “The past year has seen significant breakthroughs in malaria prevention and control, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. Landmark recommendations on the use of the first vaccine against malaria – RTS,S – were released by the WHO late last year.
“This vaccine will be used to prevent malaria among children aged six months to five years, who live in moderate- to high-transmission settings.”
She said this year’s theme, “Harness innovation to reduce the malaria disease burden and save lives,” aligned with an earlier call to urgently scale up innovation and the deployment of new tools in the fight against malaria, while advocating for equitable access to malaria prevention and treatment tools, within the context of building health system resilience.
Moeti expressed worry that despite the groundbreaking advance in the development of new tools to fight malaria, with the potential to save millions of lives, supplies are currently limited.
She therefore said that it was important to ensure that the vaccine doses that are available are utilised for maximum impact, while ensuring continued availability of other preventive measures to those most at risk.
According to the WHO Regional Director, malaria remained a significant public health and development challenge.
For instance, she said: “In the last year, about 95 per cent of the estimated 228 million cases occurred in the WHO/Afro Region, along with 602 020 reported deaths. Six of our countries, the worst-impacted by malaria in the region, are reported to have accounted for up to 55 per cent of cases globally, and for 50 per cent of these deaths.”
She added that despite some slowing of progress to reduce malaria cases and deaths, and the disruptions to health services caused by COVID-19, the situation was still better than it was in 2000.
“We need to reignite that momentum, and build on the recent advances. For example, seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) campaigns were implemented as planned in 2021, ensuring protection for an additional 11.8 million children. Indoor residual spraying was also carried out, and long-lasting insecticidal nets distributed, largely as planned.
“Other notable achievements include the scaled implementation of RTSS vaccine pilots in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, which reached up to 900 000 children.
“The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of people catching and dying from malaria. This requires a focus on research and on leveraging available evidence to ensure that our targeted interventions are an efficient use of resources, which produce measurable results,” she said.
Moeti further said there was the need to work on drug and insecticide resistance, as well as focus on new strains of malaria arising in the region, which are more difficult to detect, and treat.
The World Malaria Day is marked annually on April 25th to focus global attention on malaria and its devastating impact on families, communities, and societal development, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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