Maputo, 27 Oct (AIM) – The malaria vaccine (RTS’S) that has been under research for over 20 years in Mozambique is ready and safe to be administered to the population.
This was confirmed after the end of the final pilot trials to assess the risk of the vaccine during its implementation in a real-life context, outside of the clinical trial.
The last phase of pilot implementation of the vaccine, administered in four doses and involving children as the target group, took place over the last five years in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
However, more details are expected in the final report from the team in charge of monitoring the vaccine’s side effects later this month.
According to Esperança Sevene, researcher at the Faculty of Medicine at Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, who spoke to AIM on Wednesday, in the context of International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA-2023), to be held from November 27 to 30 in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, the trial concluded that the vaccine is effective.
“The adverse effects detected in phase three were monitored in this phase and it was also concluded that the vaccine is safe to administer”, she said.
According to Sevene, the next steps, while administering the vaccine, will be for countries to continue to monitor the safety standards, as is the case with other vaccines.
As a recommendation, all countries that are going to introduce the vaccine should strengthen their drug-surveillance systems to see what post-vaccine adverse events get the most information.
“So we’re no longer in the trial where researchers are going to give answers. We’re at a stage where we’re using the vaccine normally and each country is responsible for reporting any anomalies”, she said.
She also explained that the delay in introducing the malaria vaccine studied in Mozambique (RTS’S) was due to the research processes to assess safety and efficiency, as they take a long time, unlike the Covid-19 vaccine, which exceptionally benefited from faster production platforms.
According to the researcher, the current context is considered ideal for taking advantage of the more flexible vaccine production platforms created under COVID-19, to speed up the production of new vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS, which are of greater concern to the continent.
“Mozambique has already applied for the introduction of the malaria vaccine in the country. To this end, the government has already approved the new seven-year malaria control strategy (2023-2030). However, availability will be a limiting factor, given that there are still not enough doses globally”, she added.
(AIM)
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