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The malaria vaccine

A VaccinesWork guide: news, science explainers and reported dispatches giving you everything you need to know about the world’s first malaria vaccine and its historic roll-out.

Why do we need a malaria vaccine?

It’s been haunting humanity for millennia, but malaria shows no signs of flagging yet. In 2023 alone, almost 600,000 people died of the mosquito-borne parasitic infection – 95% of them in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority of those fatalities occurred in young children. 

2023 also saw an estimated 263 million cases of malaria worldwide – 11 million more than 2022. As climate change spurs the spread of vector-borne illnesses, those figures are at risk of rising further.

But now a new tool – touted as a potential game-changer – is being made available to the hardest-hit countries. 

The world’s first human vaccine against a parasite, the malaria vaccine is currently rolling out to babies and toddlers, for free, across Africa, with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Stick with us for news, ground reports, data and analysis from this groundbreaking public health campaign.

 

Learn more about the malaria vaccine


 

 A father brings his daughter for weighing and malaria vaccination in Ghana. Credit: The Global Fund/Nana Kofi Acquah

 

3d illustration of the plasmodium parasite that causes malaria

Vaccine profiles: malaria

Malaria is on the rise again, fuelled by climate change, but now the world has not one but two vaccines in its arsenal to fight it.

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Nurse Janet Wanyama prepares to vaccinate a child against malaria at the Malava County Hospital, Kakamega, Kenya. Credit: Gavi/2021/White Rhino Films-Lameck Orina

The world’s first malaria vaccine: a history

Malaria occupies a unique place in human history. Our neolithic ancestors were afflicted by it; the fall of Rome has even been partially attributed to it.

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A community health worker prepares the malaria vaccine in a syringe for a child at a health centre in southern Côte d'Ivoire, July 2024. Credit: Gavi/2024/Miléquêm Diarassouba

How effective are malaria vaccines?

When it comes to measuring efficacy, where, when and how you give malaria vaccines matters.

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