Layman’s presentation on new Malaria vaccine

The only malaria vaccine that has gone successfully through the mill of clinical trials is RTS,S by GSK. This is like to be called Mosquirex**. During the trial in Phase III when about 16000 children in 7 African countries were recruited, the potency of the vaccine in the first year after vaccination was 56%. Roughly, 6 out of 10 children in one year were protected from getting malaria. After three years when they had received a booster dose, the protection went down to just about 4 out of 10 children. All these better protection were seen in children who were 5-17months at the time they were first recruited into the study. Those who were 6-12 weeks old never had any protection. Because among those who took the vaccine compared to children who never had the vaccine, malaria infection was similar.
Ideally, vaccines are better accepted for use when they could protect usually 85-95% of the people who receive it.
Now, the world knows that malaria is killing millions of children. We have 1. bed nets, 2. Indoor residual spraying activities, 3. Potent antimalarial and other measures used to curb the problem. If the vaccine is added to also bring down the problem, many lives will be saved. It is for this reason and importance to public health that the World Health Organization with all parties who matter have accepted the Mosquirex even with such minimal potency.
What is left is that the vaccine is approved for use among children who 5-17months old. We need to see how it can run along the normal vaccination programs using our health systems. For this evaluation will be done in Ghana, Malawi and Kenya from 2018- say 2021. It is only after such evaluation within the health systems that the roll-out would be done. So let’s watch keenly.