This footage was filmed and produced 28 April 2023.

The World Health Organization (WHO) this Monday recommended a new malaria vaccine to prevent the disease in children. The injection, called R21/Matrix-M, and developed by the University of Oxford, is the second recommended by the international organization, after RTS,S/AS01, which received the support of the institution in 2021.

The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine will be available to countries in mid-2025, and doses will cost between two and four dollars (1.9 and 3.8 euros), according to the WHO.

This disease, transmitted by the bite of a mosquito, affected 247 million people in 2021. Its worst effects occur in Africa, where it kills almost half a million children each year. In 2021, it left 619,000 dead in the world, 96% on the African continent. Almost two years ago, in October 2021, the WHO recommended the use of the first malaria vaccine in children, RTS,S (Mosquirix) from the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) laboratory against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest parasite and the most common in Africa. The two vaccines have shown similar effectiveness in laboratory tests, according to the WHO, so each country will decide which immunization to choose depending on its availability and price. “Today is a great day for health, a great day for science and a great day for vaccines,” celebrated the director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, on his social networks.

SHOTLIST:
1. Various WHO Foreign Affairs (December 9, 2020);
2. Various from Accra, Ghana (April 15, 2023);
3. Various from Lilongwe, Malawi (April 28, 2023).