Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest foes, killing more than 600,000 a year worldwide and is a leading cause of death across many countries, but this disease comes with few easy-to-use treatments and for decades no effective vaccine.
In recent years, there has been more effective work in prophylaxis of the mosquito-borne disease with GSK’s RTS,S, also known as Mosquirix, against malaria. This month, a new shot known as R21/Matrix-M, was recommended for use by the World Health Organization. It was developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India.
Analysts at GlobalData, who track social media sentiment on new drugs, said in a new report that influencer discussions on X, formerly known as Twitter, around the term malaria vaccine “soared dramatically” in the first week of October, when R21/Matrix-M nabbed that WHO recommendation.
“Influencers expressed overwhelmingly positive sentiments regarding the WHO's recommendation, viewing it as a significant milestone in the battle against malaria—a major global threat impacting millions, especially children,” said Smitarani Tripathy, social media analyst at GlobalData, in a release.
This includes Ethan Mollick, professor at The Wharton School and with more than 176,000 X followers, posting: “I am not exaggerating when I say that this is among the biggest achievements in medical history. Malaria is humanity’s greatest enemy. Conservative estimates are that it killed 5% of all humans who EVER lived - 5 billion of us. And that’s conservative.”
Peter Head, founder and CEO of The Ecological Sequestration Trust, who has more than 6,000 X followers, added that the “New Oxford Malaria vaccine is a big advance against major child killer. Each dose costs $2-4 with 4 doses needed/person, about half the price of only other vaccine RTS,S. In 2021, there were 247 million cases of malaria and 619,000 mostly children died.”
In April, Ghana was officially the first country to approve the University of Oxford’s malaria vaccine, ahead of the WHO decision at the start of October.
The vaccine has in trials shown a 77% efficacy over 12 months of follow-up in young West African children, making it the first malaria vaccine to meet the WHO’s 75% target for malaria vaccine efficacy.