A new cheap malaria vaccine that can be mass-produced has been approved for use by the World Health Organization.
The vaccine was developed by the University of Oxford and is only the second vaccine to be produced against the disease, after pharmaceutical company GSK two years ago.
Already, an agreement has been signed to manufacture 100 million doses a year from the Serum Institute in India, the world's largest vaccine production facility.
Each dose of the vaccine, called R21, costs $2-4.
Malaria is caused by a complex parasite that is transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes and has the ability to "hide" from the immune system.
The disease mainly kills infants and young children, with 95% of cases occurring in Africa. In 2021 alone, there were 247 million cases of malaria and 619.000 deaths, mostly in under-fives.
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, spoke of a moment of "great joy".
Source: KYPE
