The World Health Organization on Monday recommended a second malaria vaccine for children raising hopes of saving hundreds of thousands of lives by plugging a huge serum supply and demand gap.

The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Britain's Oxford University and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, has already been approved for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria.

"Demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds supply, so this second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

In 2021, the RTS,S vaccine, produced by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, became the first to be recommended by the WHO to prevent malaria in children in areas with moderate to high malaria transmission.

"Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease," WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said.

Pilot programs to introduce the RTS,S vaccine in three countries — Ghana, Kenya and Malawi — have enabled 1.7 million children to receive at least one dose since 2019.

These programs have led to a substantial reduction in severe and fatal forms of malaria, and a drop in child mortality.

At least 28 African countries plan to introduce a WHO-recommended malaria vaccine as part of their national immunization programs, the WHO said.

Nearly half a million children in the African region die every year from the disease, which is caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes.

WITH AFP