One of the nastiest side-effects of COVID-19 was malaria. The pandemic caused major disruptions to anti-malaria projects across Africa, and a significant rise in the number of cases and deaths — most of which were in children under the age of 5.
What's new: Now there's real hope that a vaccine could cause deaths to plunge.
Why it matters: The R21 vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, has already been approved by both Ghana and Nigeria; it's an improved version of the RTS,S vaccine that has already been approved by the WHO.
The Serum Institute of India expects to produce as many as 200 million doses per year, and is building a vaccine factory in Ghana's capital, Accra.
The vaccine is intended for use in children between 5 months and 3 years old, and early indications are that it is 77% effective.
The bottom line: "This is a preventable, treatable disease," says Harvard professor Dyann Wirth. "No child should die of this."