TALKING
POINTS: Felicitas Zawaira, Director of Family and Reproductive Health in the
WHO African region.

Today is a day to celebrate: the world’s
first malaria vaccine has started to roll out in the first of three
countries in Africa in a vaccine pilot programme – first in Malawi, then in
Ghana, and soon in Kenya.

• This breakthrough in malaria control caps a 30-year effort to develop a vaccine with proven results to prevent malaria in young children.
  • It represents a dream come true for so many: scientists, public health experts and leaders, health care workers, community advocates, public and private partners, and the people and families who have suffered from this disease.
  • The pilot will help us learn more about the potential of this tool to change the trajectory of malaria – a disease that has held much of Africa in its grips for ages.

कीमोथेरेपी के दुष्प्रभाव को कम कर सकता है नया जैल

First, let me give you an idea of what this new tool for child health and malaria control could mean to Africans – malaria is one of the oldest documented, most devasting maladies in our history, and we bear the brunt of its toll on the world.

• The disease saps our productivity, prosperity and potential – it keeps people in poverty, and drives families into poverty.
  • In Malawi (where the first malaria vaccines are being given today): malaria remains a public health threat with the whole population at risk.
    • Malaria accounts for nearly one-third of outpatient hospital visits and 40% of inpatient hospital care.
  • Across Africa, more than 250000 children die from the disease each year, and children under age 5 are at greatest risk of death.
  • Sadly, most of us have a loved one or know a friend who has lost a precious child to this disease.

I want to congratulate the ministries of health
of Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, who have committed to the initial use of this new
tool and what it could mean to the health of their children.

• The vaccine pilot will
  reach about 360 000 children per year across the 3 countries.
  • The vaccine will be
    given to young children in 4 doses, starting at 5 and 6 months of age, and up
    to 2 years of age.
  • Countries have selected
    vaccination areas where malaria is a high burden and young children are at
    highest risk of dying from the disease – this is where the vaccine can have the
    greatest impact.
  • The 3 pilot countries
    were selected from among other interested countries in Africa in part because
    of their well-functioning malaria control and immunization programmes.

The pilot would not be possible without a
strong global and African health partnership behind it, and a trio of 3 key
global health funders.

• The ministries of
  health that are leading the pilot introductions of the malaria vaccine for the
  benefit of their people and the benefit of children across Africa.
  • Teams at WHO
    headquarters, the African region and county offices support the country-led
    vaccine introductions and will coordinate the evaluation of the vaccine as it
    is given in childhood vaccination.
    • What we learn from the
      pilot will inform its broader use.
  • The vaccine was
    developed by GSK, including through a collaboration with PATH and a network of
    African research centres.
  • GSK has donated up to
    10 million doses of RTS,S for use in the pilots.
  • Financing for the pilot
    was mobilized through an unprecedented collaboration of Gavi, the Vaccine
    Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid.

Looking forward, on behalf of WHO’s African
region, I welcome the pilot and its promise to improve child health.

• We urge all to do their part
  because “zero malaria starts with you!” – whether that means renewed
  investments in new solutions or making sure that children and families take the
  right actions to protect themselves from malaria.