World

Can the world stop malaria with new vaccines?

Published

2 years ago

February 12, 2024

Can the world stop malaria with new vaccines?

After decades of research and trials, a groundbreaking malaria vaccine is being rolled out across West Africa in a major attempt to eliminate the disease which is the second-biggest cause of death of children on the continent.

On January 22, health workers in Cameroon began gathering babies and children below five years of age for the first doses of the RTS,S vaccine, which has been developed by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and PATH, a non-profit health organisation. The vaccine’s designation – RTS,S – refers to the genes of the parasite it was produced from.

Children in Burkina Faso will be next to receive the jab, starting this month. A second vaccine, R21, was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in December and is likely to be rolled out in a matter of months. This vaccine is already being used in some African countries, Ghana being the first to approve it last year.

These vaccines have been developed as part of a global push to stamp out malaria, a disease which can be deadly for children and pregnant women. Nearly all of the more than 200 million annual cases in the world occur in African countries.

Here’s all you need to know about the new malaria vaccines:

How do the vaccines work?

Although research for a malaria vaccine has been ongoing since the 1980s and trials started as far back as 2004, the RTS,S vaccine was recommended by the WHO in 2021 as part of a process towards certification. In July 2022, WHO officially approved the vaccine for use. It has a 75 percent efficacy rate.

Named Mosquirix, the vaccine is formulated to activate antibodies and target the infectious stage of Plasmodium falciparum, a malaria-causing parasite. This parasite is spread by the female anopheles mosquito when it bites.

In trials carried out between 2009 and 2011 across seven African countries, the RTS,S vaccine prevented infants from developing malaria for at least three years after the first vaccination. Over the four years, malaria cases among children immunised with the vaccine when they were aged between five and 17 months dropped by 39 percent. Among those immunised between six and 12 weeks after birth, malaria cases dropped by 27 percent.

In a pilot programme launched in Ghana, Malawi and Kenya in 2019, the WHO reported that the use of the vaccine had resulted in a 13 percent decline in the number of deaths from malaria among more than two million children monitored.

R21, or Matrix-M, is a second malaria vaccine that was approved by the WHO in December 2023. It was developed by Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India. In test trials, R21 showed an efficacy rate of 75 percent over 12 months. There are plans to roll out this jab in Africa alongside the RTS,S vaccine in mid-2024.

Wendy Prudhomme O’Meara, a professor at Duke University, told Al Jazeera the main drawback of the Oxford vaccine is that frequent boosters are required.

“Efficacy wanes within a year [and] this makes it very effective for seasonal protection but we hope that as we continue to build the R&D [research and development] pipeline for malaria, we can improve on this,” O’Meara said. “I think the malaria community understands that this is an important first step, but it is not the end of the road.”

Two vials of the Mosquirix vaccine inside a cold chamber in Nairobi, Kenya, October 2021 [Patrick Meinhardt/Getty Images]

How dangerous is malaria?

Severe malaria can cause complications such as organ failure and can result in death. It is the number two cause of toddler deaths in Africa after respiratory illnesses – nearly half a million children die from malaria in African countries every year.

The disease is especially deadly for children because they are less likely to have built up any immunity to it.

Pregnant women in their second and third trimesters are also particularly vulnerable to becoming infected with malaria because their immunity levels are reduced. People visiting high transmission areas from malaria-free zones are vulnerable too because they lack any built-up immunity that comes from living in endemic areas.

Millions of malaria cases are recorded every year around the world. In 2022 alone, some 249 million cases were recorded, with a death toll of 608,000 across 85 countries.

Nearly all – 94 percent – of these were in African countries.

Why are African countries so vulnerable to malaria?

A host of factors including weather patterns, poor sanitation and weak public healthcare systems contribute to the continent carrying nearly all of the world’s malaria burden.

In 2022, nearly all deaths from malaria worldwide were recorded on the continent. Four countries – Nigeria (27 percent), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12 percent), Uganda (5 percent) and Mozambique (4 percent) – accounted for almost half of all cases.

Malaria thrives in the tropics, where climatic conditions allow the anopheles mosquito to successfully produce malaria parasites in its saliva, which it transmits to humans when it bites them. Waterlogged, damp places are the insect’s favourite breeding ground. During the rainy season, therefore, malaria transmission rates tend to be higher.

Some analysts describe malaria as “a disease of the poor”. Families living in mosquito-infested environments who cannot afford chemically treated mosquito nets or insecticides often bear the brunt of the disease. Treatments for the disease can be expensive. In Mozambique, a 2019 study found that one household will need to spend $3.46 for treatments for an uncomplicated case, but up to $81.08 for treatments for a severe case. The average household income in Mozambique is about $149 per month.

Even without vaccines, malaria could be eliminated if more attention is paid to reducing poverty structures and providing better living environments, O’Meara of Duke University said.

“Malaria was eliminated in the US before modern insecticide-treated nets, before DDT [insecticide] and certainly before artemisinin combination drugs or vaccines,” she said. “Malaria ecology in the US was of course much different than Africa, but still that was achieved by environmental management, bednets [untreated] and by reducing human-mosquito contact through better living conditions. Poor housing construction, open windows and eaves, open drainage systems and poor urban water management contribute significantly to the persistence of malaria.”

Countries in Asia, the Pacific and South America also experience malaria transmission, especially Papua New Guinea. Outside Africa, the disease is also spread by the female anopheles, but it carries Plasmodium vivax, another malaria parasite that can thrive in lower temperatures.

Which African countries have eliminated malaria?

So far, three African countries have successfully rid themselves of malaria: Mauritius (1973), Algeria (2019) and Cape Verde, which was certified malaria-free by the WHO last month after reporting zero transmissions for three consecutive years.

It took a huge effort. Cape Verde, for example, took decades to get the WHO certification. All 10 of its islands were affected by malaria in the 1950s. Using targeted insecticide spraying campaigns, the country reported itself malaria-free in 1967 and again in 1983, only to discover more malaria cases later.

Could malaria be wiped out worldwide?

Eliminating malaria everywhere in the world might be possible, but not with vaccines alone.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, who commits billions of dollars to malaria research through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, predicts that malaria could be eradicated by 2040, based on elimination targets at the country level.

The new vaccines are a “momentous achievement” and will provide a huge boost to the global eradication push, but they will not be effective alone, says Krystal Birungi, an entomologist with Target Malaria, an organisation working on developing genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce malaria transmission.

“It is an important addition to the toolbox for the fight against malaria and will save many lives,” Birungi said. “That said, research has shown that no one tool is a silver bullet against malaria and it is still vitally essential to utilise the existing tools, like insecticide sprays, long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and antimalarial drugs, as well as to continue developing new tools like genetically modified mosquitoes and gene drive to fight malaria.”

Many countries already distribute insecticide nets, chemicals and preventive oral solutions in high-risk areas free of charge. However, there are monetary and logistical challenges to carrying out widespread, consistent spraying, with conflict and instability in several countries hindering those measures.

Furthermore, mosquito behaviour is changing. As the world continues to warn because of climate change, studies show that mosquitoes will gain more breeding environments, meaning there could be higher transmission rates for diseases like malaria.

Currently, African countries are trying to tackle the anopheles stephensi, an invasive species originally from South Asia that thrives in urban environments.

“Due to the vector being a mosquito that can fly and doesn’t respect boundaries, we need to achieve malaria elimination everywhere in order to ensure safety for all, even places where malaria has been declared eliminated,” Birungi added.

female anopheles mosquite — A feeding female anopheles funestus mosquito. The species is a known transmitter of malaria [James Gathany/CDC via AP]

What happens next with the vaccines?

Burkina Faso – which recorded nearly 12.5 million cases of malaria in 2022 – began its inoculation campaign on February 5, adding the RTS,S to other routine vaccines for children. Some 250,000 children are being immunised in an initial phase because of a limited number of doses.

Children from five months old are eligible for the scheduled four-dose treatment – or five doses for infants and children in high-risk areas.

Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone will be next to deploy the jab later this year.

There is a very high demand for the vaccines, so supply is likely to fall far short. Only 18 million doses of the RTS,S vaccine are currently available to cover 12 countries through 2025, according to Gavi [full name, organisation, etc?]. It is unclear how many doses are needed or what the shortfall is, however, there are about 207 million children aged below four across the continent. In all, African countries will need some 40 to 60 million malaria doses annually by 2026.

The rollouts may also face social challenges. In the past, rumours that vaccines make women sterile have caused people to shun polio jabs in countries like Nigeria. Bringing the doses to rural and remote areas, as well as finding adequate electricity supply to store them at the required cool temperature, could also prove to be significant hurdles that will have to be overcome.

World

How the Iran War Has Rippled Across the World

Published

5 hours ago

March 30, 2026

Press Room

How the Iran War Has Rippled Across the World

Butter chicken has disappeared from some Indian menus. So has dosa.

These culinary staples consume cooking gas, which has become harder to get from India’s suppliers in the Gulf.

Australian farmers are planting less wheat.

Farmers around the world are worried about their harvests as fertilizer prices rise. A third of the world’s fertilizer is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.

South Koreans were urged to take shorter showers.

Much of the energy they use to heat water comes from the Middle East.

A shorter workweek in Sri Lanka. A shorter school week in Laos.

To curb commutes and conserve fuel, Sri Lanka declared Wednesdays a public holiday, and Laos adopted a three-day class schedule.

Track suits could get more expensive.

The polyester in them is made from petrochemicals. Oil and gas prices are rising.

Party balloons may be harder to find.

Qatar produces a third of the world’s helium, a byproduct of natural gas. As production and exports halt, balloon suppliers may run short.

Formula 1 canceled some races.

With missiles targeting Gulf nations, competitions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were scratched.

Concerts were postponed.

Shakira, Christina Aguilera and others postponed shows in the region over security concerns.

Cancer drugs might not reach some patients on time.

Shutdowns in cargo hubs like Dubai and Doha threaten medicines that must be kept refrigerated.

Buying a house in the United States is more expensive.

Oil prices are driving fears of higher inflation, pushing up mortgage rates.

Sugar mills in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer, may switch to making more biofuel to cash in on high energy prices.

Airlines are paying more for jet fuel, and passing along the costs.

Usually a safe investment in turmoil, gold has fallen for myriad reasons including speculative investors cashing out gold investments.

Tens of thousands of flights canceled.

With some airspace closed in the Middle East, carriers have had to suspend routes. At the same time, jet fuel costs are soaring.

Venezuela gets to export fertilizer again.

The Trump administration loosened sanctions to help U.S. farmers.

Even the chess world has been shaken up.

A grandmaster withdrew from a major competition in Cyprus over safety concerns. A drone hit a British base there early in the war.

Ukraine may run short on Patriot missiles.

The war has depleted stocks of the U.S. interceptors used by Kyiv to fend off Russian attacks.

Thailand’s premier wore short-sleeved shirts to work and urged others to do the same.

Government offices are required to cap air conditioner use to conserve energy.

Take the stairs. Leave the mall.

To conserve energy, the Philippines asked civil servants to skip the elevator, and Egypt curtailed shopping hours five days a week.

Zara clothes piled up at airports in Bangladesh.

Textile exports have also been disrupted by the canceled flights.

Gas lines are back. Even in Texas.

Worried about a price spike, drivers in San Antonio lined up for 30 minutes at a Costco.

World

US allows Russian oil tanker to reach Cuba amid blockade as Trump says island ‘has to survive’

Published

6 hours ago

March 30, 2026

Press Room

US allows Russian oil tanker to reach Cuba amid blockade as Trump says island ‘has to survive’

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The U.S. government will allow a Russian tanker full of crude oil to reach Cuba, effectively easing a blockade that has pushed the island into an energy crisis, according to a report.

The Russian-flagged tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, was headed for Cuba on Sunday, carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of oil, The New York Times reported, citing a U.S. official who had been briefed on the matter.

The tanker Anatoly ⁠Kolodkin was just off the eastern tip of Cuba on Sunday, ship tracking data showed.

“We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload, because they need … they have to survive,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday when asked about the report.

CUBA’S ENTIRE ELECTRICAL GRID COLLAPSES, LEAVING WHOLE ISLAND WITHOUT POWER

The U.S. government will allow a Russian tanker full of crude oil to reach Cuba. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

“If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not,” he added.

Trump had sought to restrict oil shipments to Cuba in an effort to pressure its government.

The U.S. government has temporarily eased some sanctions on Russian oil shipments to help stabilize global energy markets amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran that began last month.

CUBAN OFFICIAL REVEALS MILITARY ‘PREPARING’ FOR CONFLICT AFTER TRUMP CONSIDERS ‘TAKING’ ISLAND

President Donald Trump had sought to restrict oil shipments to Cuba in an effort to pressure its government. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

The Anatoly Kolodkin, which departed from Primorsk, Russia, could soon dock at the Matanzas port in Cuba if it remains on its current path, according to tracking services MarineTraffic and LSEG.

The oil would provide significant relief to Cuba, where President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said fuel shortages have persisted for months, forcing strict gas rationing and deepening the island’s energy crisis.

The U.S. capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January stripped a key Cuban ally who had been providing oil to the island on favorable terms.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said fuel shortages have persisted for months. (PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty Images)

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The Trump administration then blocked all Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and vowed to impose punitive tariffs on any third country that supplied shipments to the island, forcing Mexico to stop its exports to Cuba.

Another ship, the Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, was also carrying about 200,000 barrels of Russian fuel to Cuba, but was rerouted to Venezuela.

World

Newsletter: G7 ministers to hold talks on war’s economic fallout

Published

7 hours ago

March 30, 2026

Press Room

Good morning and welcome to Monday – I’m Mared Gwyn.

Criticism has poured in from all corners of the world after Israeli police stopped the heads of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem from entering the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday, preventing them from privately celebrating mass in what the Latin Patriarchate has said is a first in “centuries”. We have more in our top story below.

But first, G7 crisis talks: G7 energy and finance ministers as well as central bank governors will hold urgent online talks later today amid fears that the economic fallout of the war in Iran is about to hit a tipping point – with another release of strategic oil reserves under consideration.

The US’s European and Asian allies are most vulnerable to the looming economic shock, putting added stress on the fraught Group of Seven. Tensions brimmed to the surface when G7 foreign ministers met in France last week, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashing with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas when she asked when US “patience” with the Kremlin would run out, according to an Axios scoop.

European markets opened lower on Monday, with futures pointing to declines across major indices.

With oil and gas prices already spiralling, there is now fear that a protracted conflict could upend global supply chains as key commodities including fertilisers are trapped in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway which has been effectively closed since the conflict broke out a month ago.

Signs of inflationary pressure and soaring borrowing costs are now making the looming crisis hard to ignore for the G7, which is yet to jointly introduce radical measures to cushion the impact on their economies beyond the release of strategic oil reserves. Several developing countries are already rationing fuel and subsidising energy costs.

My colleague Marta Pacheco reports that EU energy ministers are mulling a cap on oil prices or taxing the windfall profits of energy companies to rein in prices ahead of a virtual meeting tomorrow, Tuesday. Officials in Brussels acknowledge that while the crisis is not yet as acute as that of 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there is more limited “financial manoeuvring room” this time. Marta has the details.

Marta also reports that agriculture ministers gather in Brussels today, with France leading calls for swift action to tackle insecurity in Europe’s fertiliser market by easing measures tied to the EU’s carbon border rules. Fertilisers are essential to food production and EU farmers are already hit by soaring prices since the EU banned these chemicals from Belarus and Russia in July 2025.

Paris wants the bloc to temporarily suspend the bloc’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism – a pricing tool based on carbon emissions with which importers need to comply – on fertilisers and ammonia with retroactive effect from 1 January 2026.

An EU official told Marta that, should a suspension not get adequate political support, Paris could table a workaround which would involve compensating farmers using existing EU budget resources to cushion the impact of higher fertiliser costs.

France is also pressing the European Commission to accelerate work on a long-promised “European Fertilizer Sovereignty Plan” – a sign that concerns extend beyond short-term relief to the bloc’s long-term strategic autonomy.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East: The situation remains on a knife edge, with no warring party represented in talks on de-escalation between the top diplomats of Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in Islamabad on Sunday.

Discussions explored ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz including introducing toll-like systems similar to the Suez Canal, Reuters reported, while broader diplomacy aims at a ceasefire and stabilising oil flows disrupted by the conflict. The mediators also contemplated the 15-point plan President Trump has passed on to Iran through Islamabad.

Yet, Trump has told the Financial Times in an interview that his preference is to “take the oil in Iran” by seizing the Iranian export hub of Kharg Island, all the while insisting that he is “pretty sure” that Iran will strike a deal.

The Washington Post meanwhile reports this morning that the Pentagon is preparing for a possible ground invasion into Iran. The Iranian parliament speaker accused the US yesterday of plotting a ground invasion in secret while publicly signalling appetite for talks, warning Tehran is waiting to “rain fire” on any American soldiers who enter its territory.

Outrage after Israeli police block Latin Patriarch from Palm Sunday mass

World leaders have voiced deep concern after Israeli police prevented the head of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Palm Sunday mass, with the Vatican and Italy convening their Israeli ambassadors in response.

Both Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Custos of the Holy Land Father Francesco Ielpo were turned away by authorities in an incident the Latin Patriarchate has said “disregards the sensibilities of billions of people around the world”. It said the two were stopped while proceeding privately without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and had to turn back.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has led criticism, describing the Israeli police’s actions as an “offence to the faithful” and to “every community that recognises religious freedom”. French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident and said it fits in a pattern of a “worrying increase in violations of the status of the Holy Places in Jerusalem”.

Israel has claimed the priests were stopped due to “security concerns” amid the ongoing war with Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight that Cardinal Pizzaballa had been asked to “refrain from holding mass” out of “special concern for his safety”, but that Israel has since ensured he is “granted full and immediate access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.”

Yet a spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate has said that private masses have been taking place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre since the start of the war, and that it remains unclear why the access of the two priests to Sunday’s Mass was any different.

Aadel Haleem and Orestes Georgiou Daniel have more.

Israel says it will crack down on settler violence in the West Bank, expands Lebanon incursion

A document seen exclusively by Euronews’ Sophie Claudet shows instructions by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Israeli army and police to crack down on settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The instructions, shared in a non-public document titled “Prime Minister’s Directive on Combating Nationalist Crimes in Judea and Samaria,” are an exceedingly unusual move for the Netanyahu administration. Judea and Samaria are the biblical names of the area known today as the West Bank.

The army had announced last week it was diverting troops away from its ongoing offensive in Lebanon to the West Bank in order to rein in Jewish settler violence, in what would be the first time Israel pulls out forces from an active war front to dispatch them to a territory deemed far less dangerous or critical.

Yet since, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to “further expand the existing security buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, as its war against Hezbollah intensifies. Almost a fifth of Lebanon’s population has now been

displaced as a result of the conflict.

Read the full story.

More from our newsrooms

EU calls for Black Sea grain model to unblock Strait of Hormuz. The EU’s special envoy to the Gulf, Luigi di Maio, told Euronews in an interview in Doha on Friday that the EU wants to replicate the Black Sea deal agreed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to unblock global supplies of grain in the Strait of Hormuz. Aadel Haleem has thefull story.

Two unidentified drones crash in southeastern Finland in ‘suspected territorial violation’. Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo says they are likely Ukrainian drones that went astray due to Russian jamming of signals as Kyiv carries out drone attacks on Russian territories along the border with Finland. Malek Fouda hasthe story.

Huge crowds protest against Trump in ‘No Kings’ rallies in the US and abroad. Millions of people took to the streets across the US – and to a lesser extent worldwide – on Saturday to protest against what they see as Trump’s authoritarian style of governance, hardline immigration policies, climate change denial and the war with Iran. Lucy Davolou has the details.

We’re also keeping an eye on

EU agriculture and fisheries ministers gather in Brussels
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Germany for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz

That’s it for today. Marta Pacheco contributed to this newsletter. Remember to sign up to receive Europe Today in your inbox every weekday morning at 08.30.