One Year Post Global Recommendation Of RTS,S Vaccine:KHRC Excited About Progress Towards Vaccine Rollout

October 06, 2022 | News | Reading time: 3 min

A year ago, WHO recommended the widespread use of the first malaria vaccine (RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) among children living in some regions. The malaria vaccine now provides added protection to over 1 million children.

The Kintampo Health Research Centre played an active role in the trials and pilot evaluation of the vaccine in Ghana. Since 2008, KHRC has conducted Phase 2 and 3 trials and now conducts implementation studies. KHRC is excited about the progress towards malaria vaccine rollout.

The RTS,S (Mosquirix) vaccine is made by GlaxoSmithKline and is given in four doses. The first three are given a month apart at five, six and seven months old, and a final booster at around 18 months.

WHO highlighted recent milestones for RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) in the 7th issue of the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP) bulletin. These milestones for RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) are leading to broader deployment of the vaccine to enable children benefit from its life-saving impact.

The Bulletin covers topics including WHO pre-qualification of the RTS,S malaria vaccine, opening of Gavi’s funding opportunity for countries to roll out the vaccine; an update on Susuana Heavenly Joy, the first child vaccinated in Ghana in 2019, among others.

Click on the link below to read more:

https://mailchi.mp/who/issue-7-mvip-e-bulletin?e=55471b3bb1