Anti-malaria vaccines developed by scientists at Oxford University have maintained a high level of protection against the disease.
According to researchers, the new vaccine offers protection for two years and has been termed as a game changer in the fight against the deadly disease.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, the prevention of new cases of malaria has resulted in major cost savings for endemic countries as the booster dose of a new malaria vaccine has maintained a high level of protection against the disease.
Adrian Hill, a vaccine specialist at Oxford and co-author of the study, said “we could be looking at a very substantial reduction in the horrific burden of malaria, a reduction in deaths and disease in the coming years, certainly by 2030.
The institute “is willing and able to manufacture 200 million doses a year starting next year,” Hill said. The six to 10 million doses GSK can produce a year is “not enough for 40 million children who need four doses in the first year,” Hill said.
According to UNICEF, every 75 seconds, a child under five dies of malaria. Many of these deaths are preventable and treatable. In 2019, there were 229 million malaria cases globally which led to 558,000 deaths in total. Of these deaths, 74 percent (416,000) were children under 5 years of age. This translates into a daily toll of nearly 750 children under age 5.