Malawi, Africa has launched the pilot project on the first-ever malaria vaccine. Malawi alongside Ghana and Kenya have been chosen by WHO due to the greater numbers of malaria cases and treatment facilities. The Malaria Vaccine pilot project aims to vaccinate 360,000 children per year, 120,000 of them in Malawi itself. Although the vaccine is expected to save thousands of lives, its effectiveness is inadequate.
The mosquito-driven disease kills more than 430,000 people worldwide, every year, most of them are African children. It took almost 30 years and nearly $1 billion to develop a vaccine against malaria. The RTS-S vaccine is only helpful for children below 2 years who would receive four doses, at the ages of 5 months, 6 months, 7 months and 22 months respectively. According to Michael Kayange, the Deputy Director of Health, Malawi, they have carried out clinical trials considering…
