With 3.1 percent of the 2022 budget, $1.3 billion, Nigeria could acquire complete doses of the RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccine for the current generation of children under five, ending the scourge of a disease that kills 95,000 children yearly.
This is if the government foots 100 percent of the financial cost of the full vaccination per child estimated at $42.6 in Ghana, $45.77 in Malawi and $56.73 in Kenya, according to a 2021 analysis on the ‘costs of continuing RTS, S/ASO1E malaria vaccination in the three malaria vaccine pilot implementation countries’.
Going by the lowest cost of about $43 in Ghana, it will cost Nigeria N540.3 billion (N1.3 billion) to vaccinate 31 million children aged five and below, a vulnerable group that has the highest child mortality caused by malaria in the world.
The 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey estimated the rate of malaria in children under five at 23 percent. But while their peers in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been set on the path to build immunity against the Plasmodium parasite, Nigerian children are waiting, surviving on other preventive tools such as insecticide-treated nets, insecticide sprays or seasonal malaria chemoprevention.
The vaccine has a 30 percent efficacy rate, according to the World Health Organization, and more than 2.3 million doses have been administered in these countries.
Ashley Birkett, head of malaria vaccine development at Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), said the ultimate goal is to hit 80 or 90 percent efficacy and achieve a rate that can last several years, according to a statement by Gavi.
What FG plans
For now, the federal government says it expects the supply and administration of the vaccine for children to begin by the end of the first quarter of 2023. This is expected from the initial batch of donor commitment to distribute the vaccine to other African countries.
Perpetua Uhomoibhi, national coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Programme told BusinessDay that the government had already set all processes in place to ensure that Nigeria would be among the first to receive the supply, which is expected to be limited due to initial high demand.
According to her, the government is already working with development partners to develop a framework that will guide the introduction of the vaccine.
Read also: World Malaria Day: Is malaria elimination achievable in Nigeria?
She said the vaccine would be integrated into the current childhood immunisation programme and administered to children from six months of age.
“We are already working with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and other key stakeholders like the World Health Organization to ensure that Nigeria has a roadmap. The processes have started. We are about to start the assessment of the readiness of the country with our external partners and then draw a framework for the introduction of the vaccine,” Uhomoibhi said.
John Bawa, Africa lead, vaccine implementation at PATH, disclosed recently at a webinar, organised by the African Media and Malaria Research Network, that the Gavi application window for the vaccine may close in September 2022.
He said the patent transfer had been made between GSK and Biotech of India, which is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world for prompt manufacturing of the vaccine, to meet the demand.
The Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has also secured more than $155 million to support the introduction, procurement and delivery of the malaria vaccine for Gavi-eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa. At least four countries have officially expressed interest in vaccines including Nigeria.
Based on the WHO’s estimate, the malaria vaccine can significantly reduce child illness and death from malaria, and save an additional 80 000 African children annually.
