United States: Ivory Coast began a routine vaccine program on Monday, using the world’s second vaccine against malaria created by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India.
More about the vaccine
The new World Health Organization (WHO)- approved malaria vaccine, R21, just six months after the world’s first malaria vaccine- RTS,S of British health firm GSK, started routine use in Cameroon.
At least 15 African nations are targeting the introduction of one of the two malaria vaccines this year, with backing from the Gavi global vaccine alliance, as Reuters reported.
The Ivory Coast received 656,600 doses of the Oxford and Serum shot. During the first rollout, the priority across the Ivory Coast will be the vaccination of 250,000 children ages 0-23 months old.
The vaccine has also been approved in the following countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic.
The rollout of a second vaccine is the latest milestone in the global fight against malaria and should help address a problem that emerged well before either of the two shots was launched. There will probably remain an immense demand for them for several years ahead, while the supply is likely to be considerably limited.
What more have the experts stated?
Experts say that the need to fill the malaria vaccine demand requires safe and effective vaccines. The shot is intended to supplement other measures in the fight against malaria, which in Africa kills some half a million children under the age of five annually.
According to the Serum Institute of India, it has manufactured 25 million doses for the first rollout round of the vaccine and “is committed to scaling up to 100 million doses annually,” as the company explained the launch on Monday on the Ivory Coast, as Reuters reported.
Serum said the vaccine has been priced at less than USD 4 per dose, as per the company’s strategy of producing affordable vaccines at a large scale.
The results of the large-scale trial in February revealed that the vaccine significantly reduced incidences of malaria in children with symptoms the year they took the shots by about three-quarters.