Three countries receive first malaria vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that Ghana, Kenya and Malawi will see the world's first vaccine against malaria introduced in 2018.

The WHO says the RTS,S vaccine, which trains the immune system to attack the malaria parasite, has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives.

The pilot involves more than 750,000 children aged between five and 17 months, with the four doses preventing nearly four in ten cases of malaria, cutting the most severe cases by a third and reducing the number of children needing hospital treatment or blood transfusions.

However, there are doubts over the feasibility of the vaccine in the world’s poorest countries, as the dosage needs to be administered four times - once a month for three months and then a fourth dose 18 months later. Where access to healthcare is limited, this may be difficult to achieve.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said: "The prospect of a malaria vaccine is great news. Information gathered in the pilot programme will help us make decisions on the wider use of this vaccine. Combined with existing malaria interventions, such a vaccine would have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in Africa."

Despite huge progress in finding a successful vaccination, there are still 212 million new cases of malaria each year and 429,000 deaths. Ghana, Kenya and Malawi were chosen because they already run large programmes to tackle malaria, including the use of bed nets, yet still have high numbers of cases.