WHO vaccine shipment, Africa's final lap in malaria battle

The African continent has the greatest malaria burden, in 2021, it accounted for 95% of all malaria cases worldwide and 96% of deaths associated with the disease, according to the WHO.

Despite the availability of effective interventions and global efforts, the disease poses a major threat to public health and economic development. Africa loses about $12 billion per year in economic productivity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.

Over the years, Africa has received aid from international bodies like the CDC and the WHO to mitigate the impact of the disease on the continent.

The scale-up of malaria prevention and treatment interventions has resulted in a 36% reduction in malaria deaths in Africa between 2000 and 2021, the CDC reported.

Over 330,000 doses of the WHO-recommended malaria vaccine (RTS,S) arrived in Cameroon in November, and several African countries are currently finalising plans for roll-out. Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger, and Sierra Leone are scheduled to receive an additional 1.7 million doses in the coming weeks.

The WHO vaccine is an advance toward more widespread immunisation against one of the most deadly illnesses for children in Africa. Roughly 80% of malaria deaths in the region were children under 5, WHO reports.

Although the African continent has been known to be affected the most by the disease, the WHO reports that in 2021, across 84 countries, 247 million people contracted malaria and nearly half of the world’s population were at risk of contracting the disease.

The WHO’s Malaria report claims that the RTS,S vaccine has been shown to reduce malaria cases and deaths in children living in regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission.

The vaccine coupled with other interventions such as insecticide-treated nets, antimalarial drugs and malaria preventive measures could potentially signal Africa’s last dance with the deadly disease.