Nairobi (AFP)

Result of more than 30 years of work, the campaign launched in these three countries aims to confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine on children under 2 years, the most vulnerable to malaria. The World Health Organization (WHO), which coordinates these programs, hopes to vaccinate 120,000 children in each of these countries by 2020.

The launch of the Kenyan vaccination campaign took place Friday in a health center in Homa Bay County, in the region of Lake Victoria, one of the most affected in the world by malaria, also called malaria. Vaccinations will also take place in seven other counties in western Kenya.

"We are launching this vaccine in parts of the country where the burden of malaria is highest," said Kenya's Health Minister Sicily Kariuki, quoted in a statement as saying that malaria has killed more than 10,000 people in 2016 in Kenya.

"Over the years, we have introduced a number of control measures and this vaccine is an additional tool that will strengthen Kenya's efforts to reduce childhood infections and deaths from malaria," she said. added.

Called "Mosquirix" or RTS, S, the vaccine was developed by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and the NGO Path, and funded by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and Malaria and Unicef.

- Relative efficiency -

Malaria, a mosquito-transmitted disease characterized by more or less severe cyclic episodes of fever, including diarrhea, killed 435,000 people worldwide in 2017, 93% of them in Africa, followed by India (4%). %). Children under 5 years old account for more than two-thirds of these deaths.

"By protecting children, we can have a significant impact in the prevention of malaria," said Richard Mihigo, immunization and immunization program coordinator for WHO, based in Brazzaville, AFP. launch.

The Mosquirix, which received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in July 2015, is acting against Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal and common variant of the malaria parasite.

In preliminary trials conducted from 2009 to 2015, it reduced the number of malaria episodes in children aged 17 months to 5 years by 39%.

Its effectiveness is therefore relative, but researchers and health authorities note on the one hand that given the number of victims, the number of people saved will be significant, and secondly that the vaccine must be associated with other means of prevention such as mosquito nets impregnated with repellent.

The program aims to test the vaccine "under real conditions before any decision (policy, ed) is made to expand the use of the vaccine," said Mihigo.

It will also be necessary to evaluate certain logistical obstacles and to sensitize the parents to the malaria vaccination cycle, which involves four injections and does not correspond to the traditional vaccination cycle for children (DTP, measles, etc.).

WHO's goal is to reduce the number of people killed by malaria by 90% in 2030 compared to the estimated 430,000 recorded in 2015.

Other malaria vaccines are under development.

© 2019 AFP