Fighting Malaria: The Role of Two Groups

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A mother brings her daughter to Ring Road Clinic, deep within Nyalenda slum, for the second of four malaria vaccine shots. Credit…Kang-Chun Cheng for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Lives at Risk” (Science Times, July 23):

The New York Times spotlights malaria, which kills nearly half a million African children annually, and the important role malaria vaccines are playing in reducing child deaths.

The malaria vaccine pilots, for which the World Health Organization provided scientific and technical leadership, demonstrate the critical role W.H.O. plays in serving countries’ needs. W.H.O. advanced the first malaria vaccine (RTS,S) at the request of member states, even as global health partners focused their attention on other agendas.

The pilots provided assurance that the vaccine is safe and highly effective — reducing child deaths by 13 percent. In some areas, combining the vaccine, insecticide-treated nets and chemoprevention can reduce malaria by more than 90 percent.

W.H.O. doesn’t stop at recommendations. We engage governments, manufacturers, social-finance companies and global funding partners to ensure that vaccines are accessible to the most vulnerable.

To continue our important role in global public health, and to ensure that interventions reach the most vulnerable, sustainable funding is critical for W.H.O., Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. With new tuberculosis vaccines on the horizon, W.H.O. will continue providing unbiased scrutiny of evidence, with country needs at the center of our decision-making, so that health for all is achieved.

Mary J. Hamel
Geneva
The writer is the team lead for malaria vaccines at the World Health Organization.