Malaria Vaccine

A malaria vaccine is a vaccine that prevents malaria, a mosquito borne infectious disease that affected an estimated 249 million people across 85 malaria endemic countries and areas and caused 608,000 deaths in 2022. The first approved vaccine, RTS,S, sold under the brand name Mosquirix, requires at least three doses in infants by age two, with a fourth dose extending protection for one to two years, and it reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30 percent. By April 2023 it had been given to 1.5 million children in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission. A second vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, showed a 77 percent efficacy rate in initial trials and significantly higher antibody levels than RTS,S, making it the first malaria vaccine to meet the World Health Organization's goal of at least 75 percent efficacy and only the second malaria vaccine the organization has recommended. Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority approved the R21 vaccine for children aged five months to three years in April 2023, and Nigeria provisionally approved it after Ghana's decision. The malaria vaccine is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.