The Oxford University team at Jenner Institute that developed the Astra-Zeneca vaccine against Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is now set to begin phase-3 human trials of a promising shot against malaria, which will be tested on 4,8000 children in Africa in early 2021.
“It’s going to be available in very large amounts — it works pretty well. And it’s going to be very low-priced,” Jenner Institute director Professor Adrian Hill told The Times (of London) in an interview. The malaria vaccine is likely to be ready for public use by 2024.
“Malaria is a public health emergency. A lot more people will die in Africa this year from malaria than will die from Covid. I don’t mean twice as many – probably 10 times,” said Professor Hill.
Covid-19 deaths crossed 1.5 million worldwide on December 3, which is close to four times the 411,000 malaria deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Malaria Report 2020 released on November 30.
Malaria is declining globally, with the disease claimed 4,09,000 lives last year, compared to 411,000 in 2018, according to the WHO report, which has used data from national malaria control programmes from 87 malaria-endemic countries, including India. Children under 5 years, mostly in Africa, account for the majority of deaths.
National malaria-control efforts worldwide have averted 1.5 billion cases and 7.6 million deaths since 2000 has been hit hard by Covid-19, said the report, but poor access to prevention tools and health services in many parts of the world have led to avoidable deaths remaining high among vulnerable and underserved populations.
In India, malaria deaths have declined from about 29,500 in 2000 to about 7,700 last year, with the country recording the largest reduction in cases in the WHO South-East Asia region, of which it is apart, where cases declined from 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million last year.