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(Adds quotes from Nigerian businesswoman)
By Maggie Fick
NAIROBI, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Africa will start talks with the
World Health Organization about getting the first approved
malaria vaccine to the continent as soon as possible, the
African Union's top health official said on Thursday, amid calls
for funding for drugs beyond COVID-19.
John Nkengasong spoke a day after the WHO said RTS,S - or
Mosquirix - developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline
should be widely given to children in Africa.
Experts said the recommendation was potentially a major
advance against a disease that kills a quarter of a million
African children each year.
"We will be engaging with GAVI (the vaccine alliance) and
WHO in the coming days to understand first of all the
availability of this vaccine," Nkengasong, director of the
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC),
told an online news conference.
Calling malaria a major killer in Africa, Nkengasong urged
donors not to play a zero-sum game "where we fund COVID vaccines
and neglect malaria vaccines".
He said it was unclear when the vaccine will be accessible
to the many African countries where malaria is endemic because
the cost per dose is not known and it is not clear how quickly
production can be scaled up.
GSK has to date committed to produce 15 million doses of
Mosquirix annually up to 2028 at a cost of production plus no
more than 5% margin.
A global market study led by the WHO this year projected
demand for a malaria vaccine would be 50 to 110 million doses
per year by 2030 if it is deployed in areas with moderate to
high transmission of the disease.
PILOT PROGRAMME
Mosquirix has been 30 years in the making. Since 2019, 2.3
million doses of Mosquirix have been administered to infants in
Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in a large-scale pilot programme
coordinated by the WHO.
Phoebe Wetende, a 23-year-old hairdresser who lives in Yala
area in Siaya county in Western Kenya told Reuters she had
enrolled her 2-year-old daughter in the trial programme because
her family had suffered frequent malaria infections.
Her daughter received her fourth and last dose at Yala
Sub-County Hospital on Thursday.
"When I was young, my family was prone to malaria
attacks...I could miss school because I am admitted in
hospital," she said. "My aunt suffered cerebral malaria, and it
scared us. She is still under treatment."
Nkengasong noted that by the end of 2021, malaria will
likely have killed many more people in Africa, especially
children, than COVID-19 has this year on the continent.
GAVI will consider in December whether and how to finance
the vaccination programme.
Merit Okorie, a businesswoman in Nigeria's commercial
capital Lagos, told Reuters she was happy about the new
vaccination because it might stop frequent hospital visits.
"They treat malaria every three months…sometimes it's not
even up to three months then we have a similar symptom," she
said.
"Sometimes we do self-medication…if they begin to give out
this vaccine I think It will help a long way. I think it will
also help parents to save money."
(Reporting by Maggie Fick, Editing by Frances Kerry and Ed
Osmond)
