“Nearly 10 000 children in Burkina Faso and Cameroon have now received the RTS,S malaria vaccine since being introduced this year. A wider malaria vaccine rollout is underway this year in several African countries, with Cameroon being the first outside the malaria vaccine pilot programme to do so.”
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Malaria Vaccine Rollout in Africa Expands Dramatically
“Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic announced on Feb. 14, 2025 that its recombinant vaccine for chikungunya, marketed as Vimkunya, was approved by FDA for use in individuals aged 12 and older, the first such virus-like particle (VLP), single-dose vaccine for the chikungunya virus in the United States…
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the virus of the same name (CHIKV) (1). Bavarian Nordic said CHIKV has been identified in more than 110 countries, and over the last five years, evidence of transmission has been confirmed in more than 50 countries. Also, CHIKV may be underreported or misdiagnosed as dengue fever due to a similar symptom profile.
Those symptoms, according to Bavarian Nordic, include fever, rash, fatigue, headache, and joint pain that can be severe or even incapacitating. Although most patients recover, as many as 40% may have chronic symptoms lasting anywhere from months to years (1).
More than 200 deaths from chikungunya were reported worldwide in 2024, out of 620,000 confirmed cases.”
From BioPharm.
“One year since the launch of routine malaria vaccinations in Africa, over 9.8 million doses of malaria vaccines (in total 12 million since 2023) have been delivered to 17 endemic countries through the Gavi malaria vaccination programme.
Surpassing the initial target of 15 countries, the pace of rollout is an indication of the high demand for this new tool as well as years of preparation by countries and partners. In total, an estimated 5 million children in these 17 countries that collectively represent more than 70% of the world’s malaria burden have been protected…
Data released this month by Cameroon’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) found that districts included in the first wave of vaccination saw a higher drop, of 17% in all-cause hospital/clinic consultations for children under five years than those areas without the vaccine. About 60% of the malaria-vaccinating districts recorded a drop in all-cause under-five deaths, and 57% recorded a drop in deaths linked to malaria in children aged under five.
With the vaccine administered so far to over 130,000 children in the country, experts caution that – while these results are promising and consistent with MVIP findings – additional data, study and follow-ups are needed to demonstrate the direct impact of the vaccine.”
From Gavi.
“Patients with advanced kidney cancer who received an experimental vaccine after their tumors were removed were still cancer-free years later in a small early-stage trial, researchers reported in Nature.
These were patients ‘where you know the risk of the cancer coming back is very high,’ said Dr. Toni Choueiri of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who helped lead the study. ‘And after a median follow up of almost four years, none of the nine vaccinated patients has experienced a recurrence from their kidney cancer.’
…
Working with Merck, the researchers are now testing a similar kidney cancer vaccine in a randomized trial with 272 patients.”
From Reuters.
“In a historic move, the government of Mali has introduced the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into its routine immunisation programme. During a ceremony held in Bamako earlier this month, and attended by numerous dignitaries and international partners, Gavi and the Ministry of Health and Social Development emphasised the importance of this initiative, terming it a significant step forward in preventing cervical cancer among Malian women.”
From Gavi.