Geneva:

Covid-19 is still killing around 1,700 people a week around the world, the World Health Organization said Thursday, as it urged at-risk populations to keep up with their vaccinations against the disease.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sounded a warning on declining vaccine coverage.

Despite the continued death count, “data show that vaccine coverage has declined among health workers and people over 60, which are two of the most at-risk groups,” the UN health agency’s chief told a press conference.

“WHO recommends that people in the highest-risk groups receive a Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of their last dose.”

More than seven million Covid deaths have been reported to the WHO, though the true count of the pandemic is thought to be far higher.

Covid-19 also shredded economies and crippled health systems.

Tedros declared an end to Covid-19 as an international public health emergency in May 2023, more than three years on from when the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

The WHO has urged governments to maintain virus surveillance and sequencing, and to ensure access to affordable and reliable tests, treatments and vaccines.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Nearly 33,000 deaths in 10 cities in India every year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are below India’s national clean air threshold. The report has been published in Lancet Planetary Health.

India’s clean air norms are presently well above the World Health Organisation guideline of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air. The report makes the point that India must drastically reduce its clean air norms to at least match WHO guidelines to protect citizens from the dangers of polluted air.

The authors used data on PM2.5 exposure in the 10 cities and the daily counts of mortality between 2008 and 2019.

Even levels of air pollution below current Indian air quality standards lead to increased daily mortality rates in the country, the study found.

“Across 10 cities in the country – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi, around 33,000 deaths per year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are above the WHO guidelines.

“A significant number of deaths were observed even in cities not considered to have high air pollution, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai,” it said, adding, “India’s national air quality standards should be made more stringent, and efforts to control air pollution redoubled.”

Between 2008 and 2019, 7.2% of all deaths (approximately 33,000 each year) across all 10 of these cities could be linked to short-term PM2.5 exposure that was higher than the WHO guideline value of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air, the study found.

“Every 10 micrograms in every cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 1.42% increase in daily deaths. This estimate nearly doubled to 3.57% when we used a causal modelling approach that isolates the impact of local sources of air pollution,” the release said.

Delhi recorded the highest number of air pollution-related deaths in the study period – a staggering 11.5% i.e. 12,000 deaths each year. “The deaths were attributable to short-term PM.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value,” the study showed.

“Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 0.31% increase in daily deaths.”

Varanasi logged the second highest number of deaths during the period – 10.2% or around 830 deaths a year, attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value. Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 1.17% increase in daily deaths, the study showed.

Around 2,100 died in Bengaluru, 2,900 in Chennai, 4,700 in Kolkata, and around 5,100 each year in Mumbai each year due to the rising air pollution during the study period. The deaths were all attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value.

The lowest air pollution levels were recorded in Shimla. However, air pollution was still a risk in the hill city with 3.7% of all deaths – 59 per year – attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value. “The results from Shimla add credence to global evidence that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure,” the study highlighted.

It is the first multi-city study that assessed the relationship between short-term air pollution exposure and deaths in India, with the cities included spanning a wide range of air pollution concentrations and situated in different agro-climatological zones, a press release said.

The study was conducted by researchers from Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Ashoka University, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, Harvard and Boston Universities, and other places.

There was a steep increase in the risk of deaths at lower concentrations of PM2.5 and tapering off at higher concentrations, with significant effects observed below the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 60 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a 24-hour exposure, it said.

New Delhi:

Nearly 33,000 deaths in 10 cities in India every year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are below India’s national clean air threshold. The report has been published in Lancet Planetary Health.

India’s clean air norms are presently well above the World Health Organisation guideline of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air. The report makes the point that India must drastically reduce its clean air norms to at least match WHO guidelines to protect citizens from the dangers of polluted air.

The authors used data on PM2.5 exposure in the 10 cities and the daily counts of mortality between 2008 and 2019.

Even levels of air pollution below current Indian air quality standards lead to increased daily mortality rates in the country, the study found.

“Across 10 cities in the country – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi, around 33,000 deaths per year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are above the WHO guidelines.

“A significant number of deaths were observed even in cities not considered to have high air pollution, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai,” it said, adding, “India’s national air quality standards should be made more stringent, and efforts to control air pollution redoubled.”

Between 2008 and 2019, 7.2% of all deaths (approximately 33,000 each year) across all 10 of these cities could be linked to short-term PM2.5 exposure that was higher than the WHO guideline value of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air, the study found.

“Every 10 micrograms in every cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 1.42% increase in daily deaths. This estimate nearly doubled to 3.57% when we used a causal modelling approach that isolates the impact of local sources of air pollution,” the release said.

Delhi recorded the highest number of air pollution-related deaths in the study period – a staggering 11.5% i.e. 12,000 deaths each year. “The deaths were attributable to short-term PM.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value,” the study showed.

“Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 0.31% increase in daily deaths.”

Varanasi logged the second highest number of deaths during the period – 10.2% or around 830 deaths a year, attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value. Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 1.17% increase in daily deaths, the study showed.

Around 2,100 died in Bengaluru, 2,900 in Chennai, 4,700 in Kolkata, and around 5,100 each year in Mumbai each year due to the rising air pollution during the study period. The deaths were all attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value.

The lowest air pollution levels were recorded in Shimla. However, air pollution was still a risk in the hill city with 3.7% of all deaths – 59 per year – attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value. “The results from Shimla add credence to global evidence that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure,” the study highlighted.

It is the first multi-city study that assessed the relationship between short-term air pollution exposure and deaths in India, with the cities included spanning a wide range of air pollution concentrations and situated in different agro-climatological zones, a press release said.

The study was conducted by researchers from Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Ashoka University, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, Harvard and Boston Universities, and other places.

There was a steep increase in the risk of deaths at lower concentrations of PM2.5 and tapering off at higher concentrations, with significant effects observed below the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 60 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a 24-hour exposure, it said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) logo is seen near its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, February 2, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Health officials from the 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) hope next week to complete more than two years of negotiations on new rules for responding to pandemics when they gather in Geneva.

Negotiations go to the wire on Friday for two complementary deals set to be formalised at the May 27-June 1 meeting: an update to existing health rules on outbreaks and a new legally-binding treaty to shore up the world’s defences against future pathogens after the COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people.

Some observers say this World Health Assembly, set to be attended by some 100 ministers, is the single most important moment for the WHO since its 1948 creation and will define the legacy of Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, mid-way through his second term.

What is the so-called pandemic treaty?

The WHO already has binding rules known as the International Health Regulations (2005) which set out countries’ obligations where public health events have the potential to cross national borders. These include advising the WHO immediately of a health emergency and measures on trade and travel.

Adopted after the 2002/3 SARS outbreak, these regulations are still seen as functional for regional epidemics such as Ebola but inadequate for a global pandemic.

Much of the impetus for a treaty comes from a desire to address the COVID-era shortcomings of the current system, chiefly avoiding a repeat of the “vaccine apartheid” denounced repeatedly by Tedros, and ensuring faster, more transparent information sharing and cooperation.

One of the most important and fiercely debated sections of the treaty, Article 12, envisages reserving around 20% of tests, treatments and vaccines for the WHO to distribute to poorer countries during emergencies although the exact portion is still contested, negotiators say.

It would be only the second such health accord after the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty which aims to reduce smoking via taxation and rules on labelling and advertising.

How will global health rules change?

Updates to the IHR rules include a new alerts system for communicating different risk assessments for future outbreaks, following criticism that cumbersome existing rules slowed the global response to the COVID-19 emergency.

Currently, the WHO has only one level of emergency – a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – whereas the new system envisages an intermediary stage called an “early action alert”.

Negotiators are also considering a “pandemic emergency” for the most serious public health threats, addressing a gap in its current system which does not use the term pandemic at all.

Other revisions include attempts to bolster states’ obligations, in one case strengthening language on their duties to inform the WHO on public health events from “may” to “should”.

How do countries view the pact?

Negotiations have been characterised by major rifts between wealthy and poorer countries’ positions that have confounded mediators’ attempts to bridge them.

The treaty talks missed a key deadline of May 10 and all but collapsed, prompting Tedros to convene an emergency meeting last week to boost morale, sources involved in the talks said.

Besides the sharing of drugs and vaccines, one of the most contested aspects is financing, including whether to set up a dedicated fund or draw on existing resources, such as the World Bank’s $1 billion pandemic fund.

Negotiations have sometimes dragged on late into the night, getting stuck on technicalities.

Another factor constraining negotiators has been political pressure over the treaty, particularly by right-wing groups and politicians who say it threatens sovereignty, which the WHO strongly denies.

What happens next?

The new IHR rules and the pandemic accord are designed to complement each other and views vary over whether one could exist without the other. Sources say the IHR talks are more advanced and more likely to pass.

However, two Western diplomats expressed fears that those seeking big concessions on the pandemic treaty will hold the IHR talks “hostage”.

Unlike the treaty, which would require ratification to take effect, possibly taking years, the IHR changes take effect automatically after 12 months unless countries opt out.

Assuming the talks do not collapse, further negotiations will almost certainly be required to define exactly what benefits would be triggered by the new rules, negotiators say. 

Geneva:

The World Health Organization said Saturday that Gaza’s largest hospital had been reduced to ashes by Israel’s latest siege, leaving an “empty shell” with many bodies.

Israeli forces pulled out of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week military operation, during which it said it had battled Palestinian operatives inside what was once the Palestinian territory’s most important medical complex.

A WHO-led mission finally accessed the hospital on Friday, after multiple failed attempts since March 25, the UN health agency said, describing the massive destruction.

.@WHO and partners managed to reach Al-Shifa — once the backbone of the health system in #Gaza, which is now an empty shell with human graves after the latest siege. The team witnessed at least five dead bodies during the mission.

Most of the buildings in the hospital complex… pic.twitter.com/jSKVfZkR5f

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 6, 2024

“WHO and partners managed to reach Al-Shifa — once the backbone of the health system in Gaza, which is now an empty shell with human graves after the latest siege,” agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the team had seen “at least five dead bodies during the mission”.

They had also found that “most of the buildings in the hospital complex are extensively destroyed and the majority of assets damaged or reduced to ashes”, the WHO chief said.

“Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible,” he said, adding that “an in-depth assessment by a team of engineers is needed to determine if the remaining buildings are safe for future use”.

Tedros lamented that efforts by WHO and other aid groups to revive basic services at Al-Shifa after Israel’s first devastating raid on the hospital last year “are now lost, and people are once again deprived of access to lifesaving health care services”.

Of Gaza’s 36 main hospitals, only 10 remain partially functional, according to WHO.

The Gaza war began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack cross-border attack by Hamas militants resulting in the death of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP toll from official Israeli figures.

Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza. The army says that more than 30 are dead.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the territory, killing at least 33,137 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Tedros said urgent action was needed in Gaza as “famine looms, disease outbreaks spread and trauma injuries increase”.

He called for the “protection of remaining health facilities in Gaza (and) protection of health and humanitarian workers”.

The WHO chief demanded “unimpeded access of humanitarian aid into and across the Gaza Strip” and a “ceasefire”.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Newborn mortality is rising sharply in the Gaza Strip, with babies being born underweight, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, citing medics on the ground.

“From different doctors, particularly in the maternity hospitals, they’re reporting that they’re seeing a big rise in children born with low birth weight, and just not surviving the neonatal period because they’re born too small,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a briefing in Geneva.

She said that at Kamal Adwan, the only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza, “at least 15 malnourished children are coming in per day, and the needs are just getting ever more severe”.

The WHO is unable to establish precise statistics on child mortality because of the devastation in the Palestinian territory after six months of war between Israel and Hamas, with Harris saying many people do not even get to hospital.

She cited a stabilisation centre set up last week, saying the inpatients were typically children with medical illnesses as well as malnutrition.

“If you have got an underlying condition, malnutrition will kill you much more quickly, so they become the most urgent patients,” she said.

On Monday, the Israeli army pulled out of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital after a two-week military operation that left much of the complex in ruins and bodies scattered on the dusty grounds.

The hospital was the biggest in the Palestinian territory.

“Al-Shifa Medical Complex is gone forever,” its acting director Marwaan Abu Saadah said in a WHO video filmed at the scene.

Harris added: “It’s no longer able to function in any shape or form as a hospital.”

“Destroying Al-Shifa means ripping the heart out of the health system,” she said, noting that it was a major hospital with 750 beds, 25 operating theatres and 30 intensive care wards.

Israel said it had battled Palestinian militants inside the complex, killing at least 200 and recovering stockpiles of weapons, explosives and cash.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted with Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,916 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Saima Wazed and Dr. Shambhu Acharya seen together at a meet in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, was on Wednesday nominated as the next Regional Director for the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region.

She defeated Shambu Acharya, a public health veteran from Nepal, in a vote held here during the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region. 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR (North) Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste — 10 of the 11 member countries — took part in the vote. Myanmar did not send a delegation to the meeting. 

The nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board during its 154th session, which is scheduled to take place on January 22-27 in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO regional office said in an official communication.

The newly appointed Regional Director will take over from the present incumbent, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, on February 1.

Ms. Wazed, in a statement, said the WHO South-East Asia Region was home to over two billion people — more than a quarter of the people of the planet — and that the region represented a diversity with often differences existing within the boundaries of single member states themselves. She said that her priority areas of work would include universal health coverage (UHC), emergency response and pandemic preparedness, collaboration and partnerships (regional and multi-sectoral), and mental health.

“We will work to promote community-based mental healthcare services in member countries, encourage prevention and promotion in mental health while expanding efforts to include mental health in the public health agenda,” Ms. Wazed said.

Reacting to the result, Swarup Sarkar, former Director of WHO SEARO, said the election demonstrated the collective resolve of member states to move forward with the vision set out by Ms. Wazed.

“As a former WHO staff, I would look forward to a stronger, responsive, and responsible WHO working at the global, regional and country levels, on the principle of one WHO and more participation of civil society at all stages of WHO work,” he said.

Geneva, Switzerland:

The World Health Organization said Saturday that forcing thousands of hospital patients to evacuate to already overflowing hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip could be “tantamount to a death sentence”.

Israel has warned Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against Hamas, one week after the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

“WHO strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern Gaza,” the UN health agency said in a statement.

“The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”

Moving 2,000 patients to southern Gaza, “where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence,” the WHO said.

The organisation said the lives of many critically ill and fragile patients now “hang in the balance”. It referred to people in intensive care or relying on life support, newborns in incubators, patients undergoing haemodialysis and women with pregnancy complications.

They and others “all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from life-saving medical attention while being evacuated”, the WHO said.

Israel pummelled northern Gaza with fresh air strikes on Saturday before an expected ground offensive against Hamas commanders.

A week of Israeli salvos was sparked by the Islamist fighters’ dawn raid, which saw them break through the heavily fortified border and gun down, stab and burn to death more than 1,300 people.

In Gaza, health officials said more than 2,200 people had been killed. As on the Israeli side, most of them were civilians.

The WHO said health workers in northern Gaza were now facing an “agonising choice” between abandoning critically ill patients, putting their own lives at risk by remaining on site, or endangering their patients’ lives while trying to transport them to southern hospitals “that have no capacity to receive them.

“Overwhelmingly, care givers have chosen to stay behind and honour their oaths as health professionals to ‘do no harm’,” the WHO said.

“Health workers should never have to make such impossible choices.”

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An exchange of fire began in Rajouri’s Kalakote between hiding militants and security forces. File representative image
| Photo Credit: PTI

Jammu encounter: Army launches major anti-militancy operation in Rajouri

An exchange of fire started on Monday night in Rajouri’s Kalakote between hiding militants and security forces, led by the Army who launched a major anti-militancy operation in the area during the day. Officials said the encounter was reported in Tatapani area of Kalakote. “An operation that started during the day continues in the area,” an official said.

INDIA bloc cites Bihar data to reiterate demand for nationwide caste census

Citing the findings of the Bihar caste survey, leaders of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on October 2 reiterated their demand for conducting a countrywide caste census to ensure “social justice” to the deprived classes. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election next year, parties belonging to the INDIA bloc have made the demand for a caste census and OBC outreach their most visible political strategy. 

Oxford-Serum institute malaria vaccine recommended for use by WHO

The R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, leveraging Novavax’s adjuvant technology, has been recommended for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after meeting required safety, quality and effectiveness standards, on Monday. 

Over 100 aircraft, including Rafales, to be part of air show in Prayagraj: IAF officer

Over 100 aircraft, including the Rafale fighter jets, will be part of an air show to be held in Prayagraj next week to commemorate the completion of the 91st year of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal R.G.K. Kapoor said on October 2. Mr. Kapoor, who is Air Marshal, Headquarters, Central Air Command, reached the Sangam area in Prayagraj with a cycle rally to spread awareness about the air show to be held on October 8.

Online auction of gifts, mementoes received by PM Modi begins

An array of gifts and mementos received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during various programmes and events across the country has been put up for e-auction, which began on October 2 .The 912 items are on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Delhi.

Trinamool begins two-day protest in Delhi over fund cuts; Union Minister Giriraj Singh threatens CBI probe 

Escalating their ongoing power tussle with the BJP over alleged denial of funds to West Bengal by the Union government, Trinamool Congress leaders began their two-day protest in New Delhi on October 2, while Union Minister Giriraj Singh alleged that the Trinamool government had created 25 lakh fake job cards to siphon off Central funds, and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could be ordered. 

North Dakota state senator, his wife and 2 children killed in Utah plane crash

A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were riding crashed in Utah, a Senate leader said on October 2. Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed on October 2 in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by The Associated Press.

Donald Trump attends court, calls New York fraud trial a ‘scam’

The fraud lawsuit that could cost former U.S. President Donald Trump control of some of his most prized properties went to trial on Monday, with New York State lawyers vowing to hold him accountable while he denounced the case as a politically motivated “scam.”

U.S., Philippines begin annual drills in disputed South China Sea

The United States and the Philippines launched annual joint naval war games on Monday, days after the latest diplomatic row between Manila and Beijing over the disputed South China Sea. More than a thousand sailors from the two allies are taking part in the annual “Samasama” (Tagalog for Together) anti-submarine, surface and electronic warfare drills off Manila and the south of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines.

After Ankara bombing, Turkiye hits back in Iraq and at home

Turkiye said it unleashed air strikes on militant targets in northern Iraq and detained suspects in Istanbul overnight, hours after Kurdish militants said they orchestrated the first bomb attack in the capital Ankara in years. On Sunday morning, two attackers detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara, killing them both and wounding two police officers. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group claimed responsibility.

Hangzhou Asian Games table tennis | Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee lose in semifinals; settle for bronze

The North Korean pair of Chu Suyong and Pak Sugyong came up against the yellow wall of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee. They looked to play their fast natural game; firing in smash after smash only to find the Mukherjees – not related – to get into position and block. Ten errors from the North Koreans, who looked to force the issue and a backhand winner from Sutirtha Mukherjee in the opening game gave India a 1-0 lead as it looked set for another huge scalp.

Cricket World Cup 2023 warm-up | Rain thwarts South Africa again

The heavens opened just when Quinton de Kock (84 not out) and David Miller (18 not out) had lined up for the final assault in pursuit of the tall target (322) set by New Zealand and brought a pre-mature end to ICC Cricket World Cup warm-up match at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on October 2. South Africa appeared to be on course for victory and de Kock had warmed up for the kill with two boundaries off Daryl Mitchell when rain stopped play and the Proteas fell short of the DLS par score (218) by seven runs.

Geneva, Switzerland:

The World Health Organization said Monday that its experts had recommended a second malaria vaccine for children, R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain’s Oxford University.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and has already been approved for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria.

“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

In 2021, the RTS,S vaccine, produced by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, became the first to be recommended by the WHO to prevent malaria in children in areas with moderate to high malaria transmission.

The WHO’s regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said the new vaccine held great potential for the continent by helping to close the huge demand-and-supply gap.

“Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease,” she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)