MSF responds to Gavi board approving investment in malaria vaccine rollout
The board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has just approved an investment in the rollout of the RTS,S malaria vaccine, which was recommended for use by the World Health Organization in October 2021 for children from 5 months of age. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) lauds Gavi’s commitment to investing in this vaccine, which, in combination with other proven malaria prevention tools, can save many more thousands of lives every year. There are, however, challenges with the vaccine’s ease of use in resource-limited settings, affordability and supply, which will require further efforts by Gavi and other partners to overcome, in order to achieve maximum benefit.
Dr Saschveen Singh, Tropical Infectious Diseases Advisor, MSF:
“It’s good news that Gavi will invest in the rollout of the malaria vaccine, as malaria continues to be one of the most important killer diseases we deal with year in and year out in our medical programmes. As many of the countries hardest hit by malaria are also those with the weakest health systems, we hope to see countries being prioritized for vaccine rollout based on their health needs and disease burden, not just on the current readiness of a country to administer the vaccines themselves.
“We call on Gavi to make sure that high-burden malaria countries with the weakest health systems are provided extra support for a timely and effective implementation of this vaccine: this includes ensuring the correct 4-dose malaria vaccine implementation, avoiding any potential negative impacts on already fragile routine vaccination programmes, and supporting countries to further strengthen other existing malaria control measures. We hope that high-burden malaria countries are also involved in developing the strategy for introducing the vaccine to ensure their greatest needs can be addressed.
“There should be transparency around all contracts, covering information on supply and pricing agreed between Gavi and the vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, in order to ensure improved affordability and availability of this vaccine. We urge Gavi to move forward with work proposed by its own Policy and Programme Committee on market shaping for the malaria vaccine, to ensure more products are on the market that will create a secure global supply and foster the lowest possible prices.
“Gavi must also work to shorten the current unacceptably long timelines for scale-up, technology transfer, and introduction of the malaria vaccine in countries, so that children can be protected at the earliest from this killer disease.”
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Malaria outreach mission
*** Local Caption *** Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal - one of the biggest and most longterm MSF France projects in the world which was launched in 2007-8 with the objective of reducing maternal and infant mortality rates in the state with the highest rates in South Sudan and among the highest in the world.
MSF France operate the main referral hospital in state capital Aweil and do so in conjunction with the Ministry of Health. MSF run maternity and paediatrics wards as well as some ICU and basic surgical operations units.
There are 20 to 25 international MSF staff on the team and some 340 national staff working for MSF. The Ministry of Health has four doctors and the Aweil hospital caters for a population of up to 1.4 million.
The maternity ward delivers on average 15 to 20 babies every day and also run a premature infants ward were they can only admit babies weighing 1.25kg or more given the limited facilities available to care for premature cases. MSF also run an in-patient Malaria ward at Aweil hospital and outreach community services for Malaria treatment across the region.
Northern Bahr el Ghazal saw catastrophic rates of Malaria this season; four times the rates of last year and far higher than the worst year in recent records (2012). Malaria accounted for around 75 percent of their hospital admissions in 2014.
The Aweil hospital has treated more than 20,000 Malaria patients since June 2014 with August, September and October the peak months for infection..jpg)
In the stabilisation room of the health centre in Bandé, in the south of Niger, Housseina is looking after her daughter. She suffers from malaria. Like her, in this endemic region, thousands of children catch malaria during the rainy season.jpg)
