GENEVA – The World Health Organization recommended on Monday the use of a second malaria vaccine to curb the life-threatening disease spread to humans by some mosquitoes.
R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain's University of Oxford, will become available by mid-2024, Tedros said, adding that doses would cost between $2 and $4. "We will ramp it up as per what the demand requirements are," he said in an interview. "We hope that by the end of 2024, there will be zero mismatch of demand and supply, with our supply coming into the system."
The agency has left it to countries to decide which product to use based on various factors, including the affordability and supply. Malaria kills over 600,000 each year globally, most of them children in Africa.Tedros added the agency had also recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals' vaccine against dengue called Qdenga for children aged 6 to 16 in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem.