Ghana approves Malaria vaccine

April 15, 2023

Ghana became the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine – R21/Matrix-M vaccine – developed at Oxford University.
It is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
It has exceeded the WHO target of 75% efficacy.
However, WHO is yet to recommend the R21 vaccine for widespread use.
WHO has earlier approved RTS,S malaria vaccine in 2021.
- It acts against Plasmodium falciparum.
There are 5 Plasmodium parasite species that cause malaria in humans and 2 of these species – falciparum and P. vivax – pose the greatest threat.
Malaria kills more than 600,000 people each year, most of them children in Africa.