Global malaria experts push for vaccines with 75pc efficacy by 2030

The new Malaria Vaccines Roadmap will target next generation products by 2030. FILE 

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI, Special Correspondent

In Summary

• The updated 2013 Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap indicates that the world should aim to have licensed vaccines that reduce malaria cases by 75 per cent, and are capable of eliminating it by 2030.

Global Malaria experts and partners have agreed on a new approach for developing vaccines capable of reducing malaria cases by 75 per cent, and eliminating it.

The new Malaria Vaccines Roadmap will target next generation products by 2030. The updated 2013 Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap indicates that the world should aim to have licensed vaccines that reduce malaria cases by 75 per cent, and are capable of eliminating it by 2030.

It comes in addition to the original 2006 Roadmap’s goal of having a licensed vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum malaria — the most deadly form of the disease — for children under five years in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015.

“Safe, effective, affordable vaccines could play a critical role in defeating malaria,” said Robert Newman, director of the World Health Organisation’s Global Malaria Programme adding that “despite all the recent progress countries have made, and despite important innovations in diagnostics, drugs and vector control, the global burden of malaria remains unacceptably high.”

The new roadmap aims to identify where additional funding and activities will be particularly key in developing second generation malaria vaccines both for protection against malaria disease and for malaria elimination.

These include next-generation vaccines that target both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax species of malaria.

“The new vaccines should show at least 75 per cent efficacy against clinical malaria, be suitable for use in all malaria-endemic areas, and be licensed by 2030.

The roadmap also sets a target for malaria vaccines that reduce transmission of the parasite,” said Jean-Marie Okwo Bele, director of WHO’s department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals.

Reason for the update

The 2013 Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap cites several reasons for the update, among them: changing malaria epidemiology associated with the successful scale-up of malaria control measures in the past decade; a renewed focus on malaria elimination and eradication in addition to the ongoing need to sustain malaria control activities and new technological innovations since 2006 including promising early work on so-called transmission-blocking malaria vaccines.

The most recent figures by WHO indicate that malaria causes an estimated 660,000 deaths each year from 219 million cases of illness. In East Africa, WHO indicates that 16 to 18 million malaria cases are reported every year and more than 300,000 deaths.