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Uganda abandons first malaria vaccine
A pupil of Kitante Primary School in Kampala receives a measles, rubella and polio vaccine during the nationwide immunisation campaign on October 16, 2019. Uganda has planned to begin malaria vaccinations for children below five years in October. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Two malaria vaccines have so far been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the prevention of malaria. They are RTS,S (Mosquirix), the first to be approved in 2021, and R21/Matrix-M, which was approved in 2023.
The Health Ministry Division of Malaria Control has revealed that the country will now use the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine to immunise children aged six months in the exercise expected to start in October.
Two malaria vaccines have so far been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the prevention of malaria. They are RTS,S (Mosquirix), the first to be approved in 2021, and R21/Matrix-M, which was approved in 2023.
Officials at the ministry had earlier said the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) promised to give them 800,000 doses of RTS,S malaria vaccine for the first immunisation drive against the leading killer disease in the country.
However, on May 17, Dr Jimmy Opigo, the head of the Malaria Control Programme at the ministry, told Monitor that they have finally decided to go for R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine because of its availability and relatively better effectiveness.
“The reason is that they [manufacturers of R21/Matrix-M] can provide the volume that we need. And then the efficacy is comparable...And then also in terms of deployment, it needs less cold chain space,” he explained.
In its statement in September 2021, while announcing approval of RTS,S (the first malaria vaccine), the WHO said: “Based on the Phase 3 trial results over four years of follow-up, among children 5-17 months of age at the time of first vaccination who were given a fourth dose 18 months after the primary series, RTS,S/AS01 was noted to be immunogenic, and to have moderate protective efficacy against clinical malaria (39 percent), severe malaria (31.5 percent), and malaria-related hospitalisations (37.2 percent).”
However, the global health agency was quick to note in its 2023 statement while announcing the second vaccine, that “the choice of product to be used in a country should be based on programmatic characteristics, vaccine supply, and vaccine affordability”.
The RTS,S vaccine was first piloted in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi before the WHO recommended it for introduction in national malaria control initiatives.
Dr Catherine Maiteki, the deputy manager for the Malaria Control Programme of the Health ministry, urged the public to embrace vaccination.
