Mozambique plans to introduce the new malaria vaccine in the second half of 2024, immunizing 600.000 children, National Malaria Control Program director Baltazar Candrinho told Portuguese news agency Lusa on Wednesday. "Mozambique will introduce the malaria vaccine this year. It will start on a small scale, in one province, and then we will move to the rest of the provinces next year," Baltazar Candrinho said ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25. He added that R21/Matrix-M, the second malaria vaccine for children, developed by Oxford University in Great Britain and approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October last year, will be used.

Baltazar Candrinho said the vaccine will be introduced in the second half of the year, vaccinating children under the age of 5, in a province to be announced later, a process that will be postponed 'next year' for others. He added that human resources are currently being trained for the administration of the vaccine and that the material conditions for its storage in health centers are being created. The director of the National Malaria Control Program added that the Mozambican government's aim is to start vaccinating the entire country in 2025, when 'the vaccine will be more commercially available'.

"There is not enough vaccine produced for all countries. But the guarantee is that next year we will expand. The amount we manage to have this year will cover one province and we will choose the one with the highest malaria burden", explained Baltazar Candrinho. The vaccine to be used in Mozambique is the second recommended by WHO, after RTS,S/AS01 in 2021, following the advice of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG). According to the WHO, both vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when widely applied, should have a major impact on public health.

In Africa, according to the WHO, almost half a million children die each year from malaria. WHO hopes the new vaccine will benefit all children living in areas where the disease is a public health risk. In areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission (mostly limited to four or five months of the year), the R21 vaccine has been shown to reduce symptomatic cases by 75% at 12 months after a series of three doses. At least 28 countries in Africa are planning to introduce a WHO-recommended malaria vaccine as part of their national immunization programs. / LUSA