According to an article in Statnews.com, The World Health Organization, acting on the advice of its scientific advisers, announced Wednesday that it would recommend a broad rollout of a much-needed malaria vaccine, saying pilot testing had shown that it was safe and could be effectively deployed in remote and rural settings.
The decision, which was announced by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, marks a landmark moment in the fight against malaria, for which no other vaccines exist. The disease killed roughly 400,000 people in 2019 — the most recent year for which statistics are available — mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The biggest toll is on young children; an estimated 279,000 children under the age of 5 died from malaria in 2019.
“As some of you may know, I started my career as a malaria researcher, and I longed for the day that we would have an effective vaccine against this ancient and terrible disease,” Tedros said during a news conference from Geneva. “Today is that day, an historic day.”
Read the article in its entirety here:
Malaria is an awful disease that is spread by mosquitos and kills hundreds of thousands of children every year in the undeveloped world. Lots of efforts have been made over the years to provide free mosquito nets in affected regions, but it just hasn’t worked very well. Thankfully there is now a vaccine that is at least partially effective at preventing Malaria, and is now being distributed by the WHO and partners. This is a great day for humanity and really should renew everyone’s faith in scientific progress.
Ms. Jenn Landers | Patient Advocate Alliance LLC Edited by Dr. Justin Groode
