Study finds that malaria vaccinations reduced child mortality by 13%
08.05.2026, DPA
Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
A malaria vaccination programme in three African countries has reduced the mortality rate among young children by 13%, according to an analysis published on Friday.
However, vaccination coverage for the first three doses was only between 71-83% of all eligible children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
"Our results highlight the urgent need to accelerate the deployment of malaria vaccines in areas where malaria continues to be a leading cause of child mortality," write the study authors.
Furthermore, the effectiveness could potentially be increased if the fourth dose were administered more frequently at around two years of age. According to data presented in the medical journal The Lancet, vaccination coverage for this dose was just under 40%.
The actual incidence of malaria-related mortality is difficult to measure directly, according to the research team, led by Victor Mwapasa of the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Blantyre (Malawi) and Kwaku Poku Asante of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in London.
The study region comprised 66 areas in Ghana, 46 areas in Kenya and 46 areas in Malawi, making a total of 158 individual areas.
These areas were randomly assigned to the study group, in which the malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01E was part of the standard vaccination programme for young children, and a control group, in which this was not the case.
The malaria vaccinations were administered – with the consent of parents – to children in Ghana and Kenya at 6, 7, 9 and 24 months of age, and to children in Malawi at 5, 6, 7 and 22 months of age.
Mosquitoes carry even more viruses than previously thought
05.05.2026, DPA
Photo: Fernando Souza/dpa
Mosquitoes, already feared for spreading deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue, are now found to also harbour viruses beyond the pathogens that these insects have long been notorious vectors for.
After examining the immune system of Aedes aegypti, an increasingly common mosquito now found on all continents, researchers at Boston University's Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine found "many more insect viruses" inside the so-called yellow fever mosquito.
The creature in question has a near "global reach," according to the team, and transmits not only yellow fever - the severe form of which kills one in two people affected - but also dengue, Zika and chikungunya.
But while the detection of viruses that had previously gone unnoticed is surely concerning, the Boston University team believes the discovery can be made work in our favour.
"We now want to develop these entities as tools to treat non-infected mosquitoes, perhaps inoculate mosquitoes to be more resistant against the pathogenic arboviruses that cause human diseases," said Nelson Lau, whose team’s paper was published in the journal Nature.
The researchers said they "someday" hope that the mosquitoes’ immune systems can be deployed "to battle some of the most pervasive and antagonistic human viruses."
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has warned of a resurgence of mosquito-borne diseases in southern Europe - evoking a return to the status quo ante when ancient Rome was plagued with malaria.
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