World Malaria Day Celebrates Preventive Vaccinations

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced no single tool could solve the problem of malaria. This is why World Malaria Day 2022 encourages the more effective use of currently available tools for malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

The WHO encourages the expanded use of the first malaria vaccine among children living in moderate and high malaria transmission areas.

The vaccine could save tens of thousands of lives each year if implemented broadly. 

GSK's Mosquirix RTS,S/AS01e is a recombinant malaria vaccine that triggers the human immune system to defend against the first stages of infection when the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite enters the human host's bloodstream through a mosquito bite and infects liver cells. 

The WHO recommended widespread use of the RTS,S malaria vaccine on October 6, 2021.

The WHO published on April 21, 2022, updated Q&As on RTS,S malaria vaccine.

According to the U.S. CDC, an estimated 241 million malaria cases occurred worldwide, and 627,000 people died in 2020.

About 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

The vast majority of cases in the U.S. are in travelers and immigrants returning from countries where malaria transmission occurs, many from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Various CDC travel alerts, such as for Burundi, included malaria vaccination recommendations.

Additional malaria vaccine news is posted at Vax-Before-Travel.com/malaria.

Note: This article edited WHO information for clarity and was manually curated for mobile readers.