DAKAR, Senegal 鈥� Ghana on Thursday became the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine for young children, one that officials hope will offer better protection against the disease that kills hundreds of thousands every year.
Final results from late-stage trials have not yet been published, and the World Health Organization is still reviewing the new vaccine. Late-stage testing is underway in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania, with results expected later this year.
Preliminary results from early testing of the new vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford, suggested it is far more effective than the only malaria vaccine聽the WHO聽authorized for use.
Results from an earlier trial released last year showed that in children vaccinated in Burkina Faso, the vaccine was up to 80% effective depending how much of an immune-boosting ingredient was included in the shots.
The WHO already rolled out a pilot program of the world's first authorized malaria vaccine in three African countries: Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. But that vaccine, sold by GlaxoSmithKline as Mosquirix, is about 30% effective.
That vaccine聽was delivered to over 1.4 million kids聽in the three pilot countries and 鈥渋s saving lives,鈥� according to Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman.
Jasarevic said WHO's advisory panel on malaria vaccines is reviewing available information on the new vaccine but is waiting for more date about its safety and efficacy from ongoing trials. 鈥淚nitial results appear promising,鈥� he wrote in an email.
鈥淲e would welcome a second malaria vaccine that is safe and efficacious and approved by WHO to complement the roll-out of the first malaria vaccine,鈥� he said.
It's not clear how soon the new vaccine will be available. Ghana's Food and Drug Authority approved its use for children ages 5 months to 36 months, the group at highest risk of death from malaria, its developers said in a statement.
Ghana is currently using the WHO-approved vaccine. Once the new Oxford vaccine is in use, Ghanaian health officials will weigh the "pros and cons before making a final decision" on which one is more effective, said Kwame Amponsa-Achiano the head of Ghana's immunization program.聽
The new vaccine can be manufactured at large scale and modest cost, its developers say. The Serum Institute of India says it could produce up to 100 million doses depending on demand, which will in turn depend on approval from the WHO.
Health officials quickly welcomed聽Ghana's approval.
"We should learn from the COVID-19 vaccines that were approved within one year," said Halidou Tinto, director of research in parasitology at the Institute for Health Sciences Research in Nanoro and head of the vaccine trial in Burkina Faso.
"(The) more we wait (the) more we'll have thousands of children dying from malaria," he said.