Malaria Vaccine: 12 African countries excluding Nigeria to receive 18m doses by 2025–WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have revealed that 12 African countries will receive around 18 million doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine by 2025

The countries projected to be among the 12 are Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya, where the Mosquirix vaccine has already been used in pilot schemes.

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 immunization 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.

With more demand for for malaria vaccine, WHO has declared that countries with the greatest incidence and impact will be prioritised.

Meanwhile, countries like Mozambique and Sudan have been excluded because of their high vaccine drop-out rates.

Although Nigeria is not in the list of 12 countries to benefit from the first roll out recently announced by WHO, the country has approved the use of malaria vaccine for children between five months to 36 months, Malaria is still Nigeria’s most lethal disease.

The WHO says the vaccine – developed by the British firm GSK – could save one life for every 200 children vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the Vaccine currently adopted in Nigeria is R21 Malaria Vaccine (Recombinant, Adjuvanted) manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SIIPL).

Malaria kills around half a million African children under five each year.