WHO recommends malaria vaccine for children, to be rolled out next year

WHO recommended the world’s first malaria vaccine two years ago and is now advocating a second one to prevent the disease in children

The vaccine, developed in the UK, will become available to countries by mid-2024 and doses will cost between US$2 and US$4, said WHO’s chief on Monday

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A nurse fills a syringe with malaria vaccine at the Lumumba Sub-County hospital in Kisumu, Kenya. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:09am, 3 Oct 2023Updated: 2:27am, 3 Oct 2023

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended on Monday the use of a second malaria vaccine to curb the life-threatening disease spread to humans by some mosquitoes.

“Almost exactly two years ago, WHO recommended the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine called ‘RTS, S,’” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva.

“Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce that WHO is recommending a second vaccine called R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in children at risk of the disease.”

R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain’s University of Oxford, will become available to countries by mid-2024, Tedros said, adding that doses would cost between US$2 and US$4.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, at UN headquarters in New York. Photo: AFP

“WHO is now reviewing the vaccine for prequalification, which is WHO stamp of approval, and will enable GAVI [a global vaccine alliance] and Unicef to buy the vaccine from manufacturers,” Tedros said.

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