Uganda to get malaria vaccine
Apr 19, 2011
UGANDA plans to launch three new vaccines to quickly reduce the high death rates caused by malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and other bacteria.
By Conan Businge
and Juliet Waiswa
UGANDA plans to launch three new vaccines to quickly reduce the high death rates caused by malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and other bacteria.
One of the vaccines is the RTS,S malaria vaccine for infants of six to 12 weeks of age.
The drug is expected to be at least 50% effective against severe malaria and it protects for one year.
The vaccine is on trial in Uganda and other African countries and it is expected to be re-introduced for usage in about a couple of years from now.
The vaccine has already progressed to the Phase III clinical trial. Most clinically advanced malaria vaccines should be ready for use in three to five years after the phase three trials, researchers said.
Malaria is the world’s deadliest disease. It kills around one million people every year mainly children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2006, the international community set a goal of having a malaria vaccine by 2025.
Malaria vaccines, according to medical experts who launched the malaria vaccine standing committee at Kabira Country Club in Kampala yesterday, will complement and not replace other current interventions in malaria control.
The committee, with the support of Uganda National Academy of Sciences and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, is meant to handle early planning to make sure there are no delays in introducing the new malaria vaccine.
Most drugs at times delay to be introduced because of the systematic and long process of licensing.
Dr. Ebony Quinto, who works with the Malaria Control Programme, said malaria parasite prevalence rates among children below the age of 10 range between 10% and 90%.
Children under the age of five, pregnant women and people living with HIV are also at a higher risk of infection.
Uganda loses 320 people to malaria everyday. But Dr. Myers Lugemwa, who is also from the Malaria control Programme, said there was need for the country to have the latest morbidity and mortality figures.
Myers added that there was need to set up malaria control strategies from village to the national level.
Meanwhile, the other vaccines to be introduced are pneumococcal and rotavirus.
Pneumococcal protects against pneumonia, septicaemia and meningitis. Vaccination is recommended for children and the elderly who are at a higher risk of infection.
Rotavirus vaccine fights rotaviruses, which are the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among children.
Each year, over 500,000 children die from diarrhoea all over world and two million are hospitalised.
Nearly every child in the world suffers from diarrhoea caused by rotavirus before age five.
Meanwhile, an international medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières, is calling upon African Governments to follow new World Health Organisation guidelines and switch from quinine to artesunate, which could avert nearly malaria 200,000 deaths each year.
and Juliet Waiswa
UGANDA plans to launch three new vaccines to quickly reduce the high death rates caused by malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and other bacteria.
One of the vaccines is the RTS,S malaria vaccine for infants of six to 12 weeks of age.
The drug is expected to be at least 50% effective against severe malaria and it protects for one year.
The vaccine is on trial in Uganda and other African countries and it is expected to be re-introduced for usage in about a couple of years from now.
The vaccine has already progressed to the Phase III clinical trial. Most clinically advanced malaria vaccines should be ready for use in three to five years after the phase three trials, researchers said.
Malaria is the world’s deadliest disease. It kills around one million people every year mainly children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2006, the international community set a goal of having a malaria vaccine by 2025.
Malaria vaccines, according to medical experts who launched the malaria vaccine standing committee at Kabira Country Club in Kampala yesterday, will complement and not replace other current interventions in malaria control.
The committee, with the support of Uganda National Academy of Sciences and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, is meant to handle early planning to make sure there are no delays in introducing the new malaria vaccine.
Most drugs at times delay to be introduced because of the systematic and long process of licensing.
Dr. Ebony Quinto, who works with the Malaria Control Programme, said malaria parasite prevalence rates among children below the age of 10 range between 10% and 90%.
Children under the age of five, pregnant women and people living with HIV are also at a higher risk of infection.
Uganda loses 320 people to malaria everyday. But Dr. Myers Lugemwa, who is also from the Malaria control Programme, said there was need for the country to have the latest morbidity and mortality figures.
Myers added that there was need to set up malaria control strategies from village to the national level.
Meanwhile, the other vaccines to be introduced are pneumococcal and rotavirus.
Pneumococcal protects against pneumonia, septicaemia and meningitis. Vaccination is recommended for children and the elderly who are at a higher risk of infection.
Rotavirus vaccine fights rotaviruses, which are the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among children.
Each year, over 500,000 children die from diarrhoea all over world and two million are hospitalised.
Nearly every child in the world suffers from diarrhoea caused by rotavirus before age five.
Meanwhile, an international medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières, is calling upon African Governments to follow new World Health Organisation guidelines and switch from quinine to artesunate, which could avert nearly malaria 200,000 deaths each year.