The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the worlds first malaria vaccine RTS, S/AS01. It will start from African countries most affected by malaria. After this, the focus of WHO will be on funding arrangements to make the vaccination of malaria be available worldwide so that this vaccine can reach every country in need of it.
After this, the governments of the respective countries will decide whether to include the vaccine in the measures to control the spread of malaria. The WHO has said that this vaccine has brought great hope for the countries most affected by malaria.
More than 3 lakh cases of malaria in India every year
Children under the age of 5 are at the highest risk of malaria. Every two minutes a child dies due to the cause of malaria. In 2019, there were 4.09 lakh deaths due to malaria worldwide, of which 67% i.e. 2.74 were children, whose age was less than 5 years. There were 3 lakh 38 thousand 494 cases of malaria in India in 2019 and 77 people died. In the last 5 years, India had the highest (384) deaths due to malaria in 2015. Since then, the death toll has steadily decreased and remained at bay since.
Vaccine trials in African countries
The malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01 was used in 2019 as a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. Under this, 23 lakh children were given the vaccine, based on its results, the WHO has now approved the vaccine. The worlds first malaria vaccine was made in 1987 by the GSK company.
According to the results of the pilot project, the worlds first malaria vaccine is safe and can prevent 30% of severe cases. Of the children given this vaccine, two-thirds of them were those who did not have mosquito nets as protection. It has also been revealed that malaria vaccine does not have any negative effect on other vaccines or any other measures to prevent malaria.
The WHO recommends giving children in sub-Saharan African countries 4 doses of malaria vaccine by the age of two. This vaccine neutralizes Plasmodium falciparum. Plasmodium falciparum is one of the five parasites that are the cause of malaria and is the most dangerous. According to the WHO, 4 out of every 10 malaria cases can be prevented by the vaccine and 3 out of 10 people can be saved in severe cases.
According to the WHO, malaria causes 4.09 lakh deaths worldwide every year, most of them children from African countries. Half of all malaria deaths worldwide occur in six sub-Saharan African countries, a quarter of these cases are from Nigeria. The primary cause of malaria is the feeding of infected mosquitos on humans.
Below are the listed symptoms of malaria
- High fever
- Headache
- Sore throat
- Tiredness
- Restlessness
- Vomiting
- Anemia
- Muscle pain
- Bloody diarrhea
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