World's first malaria vaccine approved for children

Original title: the world's first malaria vaccine approved for children
World's first malaria vaccine approved for children
Science and technology daily (reporter Liu Xia) according to a recent report on the website of the British New Scientist magazine, based on the data of the pilot project, the world's first malaria vaccine has been approved to be widely used among children in sub Saharan Africa and other areas at high risk of malaria transmission. It is the only vaccine that has been proved to significantly reduce the risk of malaria in children.
Who believes that this vaccine has strong safety and rare side effects (vaccinators may have fever and convulsions). It is recommended that children aged 5 months in areas with medium and high risk of malaria transmission should be vaccinated with four doses of malaria vaccine. The first three doses should be injected between 5-17 months, with an interval of one month. The last dose should be injected about 18 months after the third dose.
"This is a historic moment. The long-awaited child malaria vaccine has made breakthroughs in science, child health and malaria control. Using this vaccine on the basis of existing malaria prevention methods can save tens of thousands of young lives every year," said who director general Tan Desai
Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting and, in severe cases, death.
The vaccine is called "RTS, S", which is composed of a part of the protein of malaria parasite and another part of hepatitis B virus. GlaxoSmithKline began to develop this vaccine in 1987 against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest and most popular malaria parasite in Africa.
Since 2019, the vaccine has been piloted in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi for children aged 5 months and above. So far, more than 800000 children have been vaccinated with more than 2.3 million doses. The results showed that more than two-thirds of children without mosquito nets benefited from the vaccine, and the incidence of severe malaria decreased by 30%.
Reuters reported that although the vaccine still has room for improvement in many aspects, such as the effect of severe prevention is not very good, multiple vaccination is required, and the effectiveness decreases after several months, even so, the vaccine can still play a great role in combating malaria.
According to who data, malaria is still one of the most deadly diseases in the world. It is estimated that there were 229 million malaria cases in the world in 2019, of which more than 90% occurred in Africa. Among the 409000 deaths in that year, 67% (about 260000) were children under the age of 5. This age group has the greatest risk of life-threatening complications.
A study published last year estimated that providing vaccines to countries with the largest malaria cases could prevent 5.3 million malaria cases and 24000 deaths of children under the age of 5 every year. It is reported that the pilot project plans to continue to study the effectiveness of the fourth dose.