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WHO recommends malaria vaccine for children, to be rolled out next year
- WHO recommended the world’s first malaria vaccine two years ago and is now advocating a second one to prevent the disease in children
- The vaccine, developed in the UK, will become available to countries by mid-2024 and doses will cost between US$2 and US$4, said WHO’s chief on Monday
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended on Monday the use of a second malaria vaccine to curb the life-threatening disease spread to humans by some mosquitoes.
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“Almost exactly two years ago, WHO recommended the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine called ‘RTS, S,’” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva.
“Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce that WHO is recommending a second vaccine called R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in children at risk of the disease.”
R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain’s University of Oxford, will become available to countries by mid-2024, Tedros said, adding that doses would cost between US$2 and US$4.
“WHO is now reviewing the vaccine for prequalification, which is WHO stamp of approval, and will enable GAVI [a global vaccine alliance] and Unicef to buy the vaccine from manufacturers,” Tedros said.
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