Malaria, the mosquito-borne infectious disease, kills ten times more people annually than COVID-19. It can infect animals too. Fortunately, the Oxford team responsible for one of the successful COVID-19 vaccine candidates is also working on a malaria vaccine. They’re entering the final stages of human trials now and say a jab could be ready by 2024.
The Jenner Institute director Adrian Hill told The Times that the much-anticipated injection would be trialed on up to 5000 children in Africa next year, so long as their final human trials show positive results.
According to the WHO, there are 219 million malaria cases globally each year, with over 400,000 resulting in death. Mostly children younger than five die, but pregnant women are also at high risk.
UNICEF says the disease is the largest killer of children – about 3,000 die daily, or one child every 30 seconds. Almost half of the world lives in regions where malaria mosquitoes reside, putting them at risk of contracting the disease. However, 90% of reported cases are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Hill said:
Malaria is a public health emergency. A lot more people will die in Africa this year from malaria than will die from COVID-19. I don’t mean twice as many – probably ten times. (The vaccine) It’s going to be available in substantial amounts; it works pretty well. And it’s going to be very low priced.
The disease is treatable with drugs, but many times people don’t get them in time. The vaccine could help to prevent all those unnecessary deaths.
