Close-up of a yellow-fever mosquito biting human skin, it is a culicidae vector of malaria, yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue and zika virus in Brazil, known locally as mosquito da dengue.
Joao Paulo Burini | Moment | Getty Images
Nigeria this week joined Ghana in provisionally approving a latest malaria vaccine developed by scientists on the University of Oxford, potentially paving the trail to avoid wasting tens of millions of lives and boost Africa’s long-term economic prospects.
Africa’s largest economy, which accounts for 31.3% of all malaria deaths worldwide in response to the World Health Organization, granted regulatory clearance for the rollout of the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine on Tuesday, just per week after Ghana became the primary country to clear the brand new shot.
Each nations have approved the vaccine to be used on children aged between five and 36 months — the age group at highest risk of death from the mosquito-carried disease.
The University of Oxford Jenner Institute, which developed the vaccine, estimates that malaria kills around 800,000 people each year. These casualties occur predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in five childhood deaths is related to the disease. The WHO assessed that 241 million clinical cases of malaria occurred in 2020, leading to 627,000 deaths, mostly amongst children in Africa.
“This marks a culmination of 30 years of malaria vaccine research at Oxford with the design and provision of a high efficacy vaccine that could be supplied at adequate scale to the countries who need it most,” Professor Adrian Hill, chief investigator on the R21/Matrix-M program and director of the Jenner Institute, said upon the announcement of Ghana’s regulatory clearance on April 13.
A medical examiner vaccinates a baby against malaria in Ndhiwa, Homabay County, western Kenya on September 13, 2019 through the launch of malaria vaccine in Kenya.
Brian Ongoro | AFP | Getty Images
In 2021, the WHO signed off on GSK’s RTS,S malaria vaccine for rollout across sub-Saharan Africa, following pilot programs in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, which tracked 800,000 children since 2019. Trials to this point have suggested that R21 is prone to be way more potent in combating the disease.
The R21 vaccine was the primary of its kind to pass the WHO’s efficacy goal of 75%, though data from final-stage trials continues to be pending.
The vaccine is being manufactured by India’s Serum Institute, which has suggested it has the capability to produce around 200 million doses per 12 months, while the vaccine is reportedly each low-cost to provide and simple to move.
‘Major boost to long-run growth’
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights that malaria is a fantastic drain on many national economies, especially as many poorer nations are amongst probably the most affected. As such, the disease “maintains a vicious cycle of disease and poverty,” the CDC says.
While the economic impact of the vaccine will rely upon a large number of presently unknown aspects — resembling logistical challenges, the extent to which immunity could be provided to older children and adults, and the duration of immunity — a successful rollout could have “major positive economic implications,” in response to William Jackson, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
Lower childhood mortality will reduce the population’s costs of prevention and treatment, with various estimates suggesting that around 3.8% of household income could also be spent on such measures in heavily affected countries, Jackson noted.
“It would scale back the burden on public healthcare spending too. These resources may very well be freed up for other consumption or saved, which might increase the pool of resources that could be used for domestic investment,” Jackson said in a research note Thursday.
“Lower child mortality may feed through to lower fertility rates within the region — that are currently very high. That, and the reduced must look after sick children, may in turn allow more women to enter the workforce, raising labour force participation rates and increasing the labour supply.”
Should the vaccine offer lasting immunity for older children and adults, fewer malaria-related absences from school and work could increase human capital and labor supply, respectively, Jackson suggested.
“In fact, labour supply will not be an impediment to growth within the region. Working-age populations are growing rapidly, but taking this impact along with the reduced cost of prevention and treatment, the boost to GDP may very well be significant,” he added.
Jackson pointed to a study within the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which found that GDP per capita in malaria-intensive countries grew by 1.3 percentage points less per 12 months than comparable peers between 1965 and 1990. The identical study showed that Jamaica and Taiwan recorded a 0.2-0.8 percentage point acceleration in growth each year relative to peers after eradicating malaria.
A more moderen study published in 2019 modelled the impact of a vaccine covering 100% of youngsters under the age of 5 in Ghana. That specific vaccine had an efficacy rate of fifty% against clinical malaria — much lower than the R21 — and of 20% against malaria mortality. The study still estimated a 0.5-percentage point boost per 12 months to GDP growth over a 30-year period at this level of vaccine coverage and efficacy.
“Briefly, then, the vaccine has the potential to supply a significant boost to long-run growth in much of Africa,” Jackson concluded.
