Vaccination for Malaria Control

Muhammad Minoar Hossain^*
*Correspondence: Muhammad Minoar Hossain, Department of Pathology, North South University, Bangladesh, Email:

Letter

Malaria has been one among the world's deadliest diseases. It kills more than4, 00,000 people a year worldwide and causes illness in millions of others.

In the past two decades, existing interventions have reduced the malariaburden. And India, too, has made good progress in malaria control. Thedisease burden has declined by 59%. The fight against the disease gotanother shot in the arm when the world’s first malarial vaccine got launchedin Malawi.

A large scale pilot project, which has been called the world’s first malariavaccine, to give partial protection to children has begun in Malawi. Thevaccine called RTS, S are going to be available to everyone under the age oftwo. After the rollout in Malawi, vaccination will begin in Ghana and Kenya.Approximately, 3, 60,000 children will get the vaccine annually. According tothe World Health Organization (WHO), the effort could immunize more thanone million children by the year 2023.

Malaria Vaccine: Known by its lab initials as RTS, S but branded as Mosquirix,the vaccine has passed lengthy scientific trials that found it to be safe andreducing the risk of malaria by nearly 40%, the simplest ever recorded.

It was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Company and approved bythe Eco Medicines Agency in 2015.The RTS, S vaccine trains the immunesystem to attack the malaria parasite (Plasmodium (P.) falciparum, the mostdeadly species of the malaria parasite) which is spread by mosquito bites.This vaccine took 30 years to be developed. The efficiency of the RTS, Svaccine was established during a phase 3 clinical test that concluded in 2014.The vaccine only prevents four in ten malarial cases and must be given asfour injections over 18 months.

WHO wants the vaccine to be used alongside other preventive measuressuch as treated bed nets, insecticides, repellents and anti-malarial drugs?.Malawi is first of the three countries chosen for the pilot program to roll out thevaccine. Soon, Ghana and Kenya will take part as a part of an outsized scale pilot program backed by the WHO. These three countries were selected forthe rollout because their malaria rates are high. The vaccine is not registeredin India. Before registration, the trial is must. Also, so far, no vaccine has beentried in India against Malaria.

World Malaria Report, 2018, 70% of malaria cases in the world is concentratedin India and 10 African countries. The ten African countries reported anincrease in cases of malaria in 2017 compared to 2016. Nigeria, Madagascarand therefore the Democratic Republic of the Congo showed the very bestrise. In contrast, India reported 30 lakh fewer cases in the same period.

Children aged less than 5 years accounted for 61% of all malaria deathsworldwide. The highest number of deaths- 19% was recorded in Nigeria.Expenditure on Malaria has remained more or less stable since 2010. In2017, like the previous years, America was the largest international source ofmalaria financing contributing 120 core dollars.

In 2015, it was decided by the World Health Assembly that by 2030, malariahas to be completely eliminated in at least 35 countries. In order to achievethis goal, annual expenditure on programmers related to malaria must beincreased by 660 core dollars by 2020.

Globally, the scope of malaria eradication has increased. There were nocases of malaria in China and El Salvador in 2017. WHO declared Paraguaya malaria free country in 2018? Algeria, Argentina and Uzbekistan haverequested the WHO to declare them malaria free.

Malaria Cases in India: With 9.5 million malaria cases, India reported almost 3million fewer malaria cases in 2017 or a 24% decrease over the previous year.India’s reduction- the sharpest within a year, means the country accounts forjust 4% of the world’s total malaria cases and is not any longer among theworld’s top three countries in terms of number of cases.

Nearly half all malaria cases were reported from Odessa, Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh and parts of West Bengal which have a sizeable tribal populationliving within the remote rural areas.