18 Million Doses of Malaria Vaccine Allocated

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced Wednesday that 18 million doses of the first-ever malaria vaccine would be allocated to 12 African countries.

The Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme previously began in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi as pilot areas, and those countries will continue to receive doses of RTS,S/AS01.

Doses will now be made available for the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

“We’re excited to announce that 12 countries in Africa will be allocated a total of 18 million doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine over the next two years with Gavi support!” Gavi announced.

We’re excited to announce that 12 countries in Africa will be allocated a total of 18 million doses of the world’s first #malaria vaccine over the next two years with Gavi support! https://t.co/W8PS1T9uK7 @WHO @UNICEF @GSK @UNITAID @GlobalFund @MedAccessUK @PATHTweets @USAIDGH

— Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (@gavi) July 5, 2023

Gavi announced:

Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been delivering the malaria vaccine through the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP), coordinated by WHO and funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid. The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi since 2019 and has been shown to be safe and effective, resulting in a substantial reduction in severe malaria and a fall in child deaths. At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the malaria vaccine.

In addition to Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the initial 18 million dose allocation will enable nine more countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda, to introduce the vaccine into their routine immunisation programmes for the first time. This allocation round makes use of the supply of vaccine doses available to Gavi, Vaccine Alliance via UNICEF. The first doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in countries during the last quarter of 2023, with countries starting to roll them out by early 2024.

“This vaccine has the potential to be very impactful in the fight against malaria, and when broadly deployed alongside other interventions, it can prevent tens of thousands of future deaths every year,” said Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “While we work with manufacturers to help ramp up supply, we need to make sure the doses that we do have are used as effectively as possible, which means applying all the learnings from our pilot programmes as we broaden out to a new total of 12 countries.”

Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, killing nearly half a million children each year under the age of 5, and accounting for approximately 95% of global malaria cases and 96% of deaths in 2021.

“Nearly every minute, a child under 5 years old dies of malaria,” said UNICEF Associate Director of Immunization Ephrem T Lemango. “For a long time, these deaths have been preventable and treatable; but the roll-out of this vaccine will give children, especially in Africa, an even better chance at surviving. As supply increases, we hope even more children can benefit from this life-saving advancement.”

“The malaria vaccine is a breakthrough to improve child health and child survival; and families and communities, rightly, want this vaccine for their children. This first allocation of malaria vaccine doses is prioritised for children at highest risk of dying of malaria,” said Dr Kate O’Brien, WHO Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. “The high demand for the vaccine and the strong reach of childhood immunisation will increase equity in access to malaria prevention and save many young lives. We will work tirelessly to increase supply until all children at risk have access.”

However, the malaria vaccine is another dangerous shot with horrific side effects.

“Trials were a disaster. 10x higher risk of meningitis, cerebral malaria, and a doubling in the risk of death in the vaccine cohort,” Jordan Schachtel wrote.

Tedros announces they are going to flood Africa with ultra dangerous Malaria vaxxes.

Trials were a disaster. 10x higher risk of meningitis, cerebral malaria, and a doubling in the risk of death in the vaccine cohort.

WHO is the ISIS of "public health."https://t.co/GPnsRP4nQL

— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) July 5, 2023

In our prior reporting, we shared a paper published in in The Lancet Infectious Diseases highlighting the dangers of the malaria vaccine.

Researchers concluded the findings in the malaria vaccine implementation programme (MVIP) “do not rule out the possibility of increased mortality among vaccinated girls compared with vaccinated boys, as observed in the phase 3 studies.”

“Three significant safety signals were identified, related to meningitis, cerebral malaria, and female-specific all-cause mortality,” the researchers noted.

The researchers concluded that the “claimed impact of the MVIP on mortality is not based on enough scientific evidence.”

The vaccine’s impact on severe malaria was estimated to be around 30%.

The paper’s final conclusions stated:

We have made several recommendations for the way forward (panel). Populations affected by malaria and their policy makers have waited for a vaccine for about half a century. The enthusiasm greeting the WHO recommendation of RTS,S is understandable. Unfortu-nately, the available data suggest that this vaccine, like some other non-live vaccines,16, 17 might increase all-cause mortality in girls to the extent that its deployment could lead to a net increase in deaths of girls among the recipients.

Yet, the WHO announced its recommendation for the shot:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. The recommendation is based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 900 000 children since 2019.

“This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”

Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260 000 African children under the age of five die from malaria annually.

In recent years, WHO and its partners have been reporting a stagnation in progress against the deadly disease.

“For centuries, malaria has stalked sub-Saharan Africa, causing immense personal suffering,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We have long hoped for an effective malaria vaccine and now for the first time ever, we have such a vaccine recommended for widespread use. Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease and we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults.”

WHO recommendation for the RTS,S malaria vaccine

Based on the advice of two WHO global advisory bodies, one for immunization and the other for malaria, the Organization recommends that:

WHO recommends that in the context of comprehensive malaria control the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine be used for the prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children living in regions with moderate to high transmission as defined by WHO. RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine should be provided in a schedule of 4 doses in children from 5 months of age for the reduction of malaria disease and burden.

“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided catalytic funding for late-stage development of RTS,S between 2001 and 2015,” the WHO stated.

WATCH:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation stated:

Bill Gates announced today that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $168.7 million to PATH for its Malaria Vaccine Initiative to develop vaccines for malaria – a disease that kills thousands of African children every day.

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) is working with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals to develop a first-generation vaccine candidate, known as RTS,S, which could become the first-ever approved malaria vaccine. With the new grant announced today, MVI will support the development of next-generation vaccines that could provide even greater and longer-lasting protection.

“I’m very hopeful that the malaria vaccine currently in advanced testing will be proven effective, but that will just be the first step,” said Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. “Now it’s time to develop a new generation of vaccines that are even more effective, and could someday help eradicate malaria altogether.”

Gates announced the new funding at the UN Millennium Development Goals Malaria Summit, a meeting of heads of state, CEOs, UN officials, and other leaders. At the event, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership launched the Global Malaria Action Plan, a comprehensive global strategy to fight malaria. The Gates Foundation grant and other commitments announced today will help address key priorities in the Action Plan.