Sierra Leone Among Countries To Acquire World’s First Malaria Vaccine

By Muctar Koroma

Sierra Leone has been appointed among nine African countries to receive the world’s first Malaria vaccine, the global vaccine alliance GAVI, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children agency UNICEF announced on Wednesday.

The development is part of an expansion of the Malaria vaccine programme of GAVI, alongside its partners, the organizations said in a joint statement. They said that 18 million doses of the RTS, S, vaccine, which was developed by UK pharmaceutical firm, GSK, will be delivered to a total of 12 countries over the next two years.

RTS, is the world’s first malaria vaccine and the first approved vaccine to combat a human parasitic disease. WHO approved it for use in July 2022. Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been receiving the vaccine as part of a pilot program funded by GAVI, since 2019. Under this programme, more than 1.7 million children in the three countries received doses, according to the statement. Malaria is considered as one of the highest killer diseases on the African continent, especially deadly for children.

It is responsible for the deaths of nearly half a million children each year under the age of five, according to WHO, which also shows that the continent accounted for about 95% of global malaria cases and 96% of deaths in 2021. The first doses of the vaccine are expected to reach the 12 countries during the last quarter of 2023, allowing them to start rolling out by early next year, according to the statement.