Malaria is curable, yet each year in Africa 250,000 children die from the mosquito-borne disease. On Tuesday starts now a vaccination campaign, the vaccine against malaria wants to use for the first time on a large scale.
As part of a pilot project, around 360,000 infants will first be vaccinated against the dangerous disease in Malawi, later Ghana and Kenya, by 2022 each year. "The vaccine has the potential to save the lives of tens of thousands of children," says Mary Hamel, coordinator of the World Health Organization's malaria vaccine program.
The disease is transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, especially at night stabbing. Malaria causes fever, anemia and neurological problems and can be fatal if left untreated. Developing a vaccine against the resistant and adaptable parasites is considered to be much more difficult than vaccines against viruses - such as those that cause measles or Ebola.
No magic agent
The "RTS, S" vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline is effective against the most widespread and dangerous malaria parasite "Plasmodium falciparum" in Africa. For three decades, the British pharmaceutical company had been working on the vaccine.
Its protective effect is however limited. In the largest clinical study involving around 15,000 children, the vaccine prevented about 40 percent of the disease and about 30 percent of severe malaria cases.
For full effectiveness toddlers would also get four syringes. The first three vaccinations should take place at the age of about five to nine months, the fourth at the age of two years. Not all vaccines coincide with other routine vaccines. It will therefore be challenging for the pilot to ensure that parents actually bring their children to all four vaccination dates, especially in remote areas.
Combination of different measures
Study results also showed that the effect of the vaccine wears off over time - so vaccination is not enough to protect children from malaria for life. Parents need to be informed about this so that they do not suddenly give up other preventive measures such as mosquito nets.
Even insecticide-treated mosquito nets provide only partial protection, says Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO's malaria program. "The fight against malaria is one in which we use imperfect tools, but we can only have the best effect if we combine them," says Alonso.
After years of progress, the number of diseases worldwide has risen again recently. In 2017, documented malaria cases rose by about two million to 219 million cases compared to the previous year. 435,000 people died of malaria. About 90 percent of all illnesses occur in Africa.