Withdrawal of funding could disrupt a promising malaria vaccine

A vaccine with the potential to eliminate malaria could be approved as early as next year if funding for further research is not withdrawn.

Mr Adrian HillD., director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, who was also involved in creating Astra Zeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, believes that Recent tests with the R21 malaria vaccine have been encouraging and the vaccine’s creators hope it will be approved early next year, reports say. Watchman.

Experts believe that R21 is the best malaria vaccine to date and has already been shown to be 77% effective after the first doses. Test results in Burkina Faso show that the vaccine maintains its effectiveness after a single booster dose.

Appeals not to terminate the funding

But when the success of R21 vaccine trials was revealed, Adrian Hill said it would be unfortunate if Britain cut off the funding that helped make the vaccine possible, just as scientists prepare to make a real effort against malaria.

He has appealed to the new British Prime Minister Les Truss Not to squander the latest British innovations by cutting off funding.

If funding is reduced, the fund will not have enough

Researchers hope that the World Health Organization will approve a vaccine next year, provided a large ongoing study reveals no unexpected problems. However, Adrian Hill warns that vaccinating millions of African children can be a challenge without funding.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the body that provides more than half of the world’s full funding for malaria programmes, has warned that unless it receives much more funding from donor countries such as Britain at a pledging conference in September, they will not have enough to fight the disease. which they are fighting against.

The United Kingdom is one of the Fund’s largest donors

The UK has not yet revealed what it will pledge, but the fund is believed to have asked for £1.8 million, about 22.8 million Swedish kronor. Liz Truss outlined a foreign aid strategy characterized by spending cuts and funding withdrawals for multilateral organizations such as the Global Fund.

The United Kingdom is the Fund’s third largest donor.

“It is very important that the Global Fund is properly funded. What they are doing is absolutely remarkable,” Adrian Hill tells The Guardian.

He adds that he hopes the new British prime minister will realize the importance of doing what Britain has done well in the past.

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