331,200 Malaria Vaccines Arrived in Africa

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that 331,200 doses of Mosquirix™ RTS, S/AS01, arrived in the Republic of Cameroon.

Mosquirix is a recombinant malaria vaccine with the P. falciparum circumsporozoite protein.

The delivery on November 21, 2023, is the first to a country located on the Gulf of Guinea not previously involved in the WHO malaria vaccine pilot program and signals that scale-up of vaccination against malaria across the highest-risk areas on the African continent will begin shortly.

A further 1.7 million doses of Mosquirix are expected to arrive in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger, and Sierra Leone in the coming weeks, with additional African countries set to receive doses in the months ahead.

Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have been administering the vaccine in a schedule of 4 Mosquirix doses from around five months of age in selected districts as part of the pilot program known as the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP).

More than 2 million children have been reached with the malaria vaccine in three African countries through MVIP – resulting in a 13% drop in all-cause mortality in children age eligible to receive the vaccine and substantial reductions in severe malaria illness and hospitalizations. 

Nearly every minute, a child under five dies of malaria in Africa.

In 2021, there were 247 million malaria cases globally, which led to 619,000 deaths in about 84 countries.

Of these deaths, 77% were children under five years of age.

Approximately 95% of global malaria cases and 96% of related deaths in 2021.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued various alerts for malaria-endemic countries, including Costa Rica.

The CDC has recently confirmed autochthonous (local) malaria cases in Florida (seven), Texas, Maryland, and Arkansas.

As of November 22, 2023, malaria vaccines are unavailable in the U.S.