WHO recommends malaria vaccine, will roll out in early 2024

The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggested on Monday the adoption of a second malaria vaccination to prevent the potentially fatal illness that some mosquitoes transmit to people. The world’s first malaria vaccine, known as RTS,S, was recommended for widespread use by the WHO about two years ago, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director, at a briefing in Geneva. Today, I have the great pleasure of announcing that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended the use of a second vaccination called R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in young children at risk. R21/Matrix-M, created by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, will be made available in some African nations in early 2024 and in other nations in mid-2024, according to Tedros, who also noted that doses will cost between $2 and $4. (With agency inputs)