Pre-pregnancy malaria jab could help protect mums and babies, trial finds

Giving women in Africa a malaria vaccine before they get pregnant could help protect them against infection for almost two years without the need for a booster, a trial has found.

Scientists said the findings are a "tremendous advance" in protecting women against malaria - a life-threatening disease spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes.

It is mostly found in tropical countries, with high incidences of the disease in Africa.

In 2022, most malaria cases were in the African region, with 233 million cases (94%) and 580,000 (95%) of malaria deaths recorded, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It's estimated that severe malaria infection – or plasmodium falciparum – during pregnancy leads to 50,000 deaths and 200,000 stillbirths in Africa every year.

Researchers recruited 300 women in Mali, west Africa, who were planning to get pregnant in the coming year.

Of the group, 100 were given a low dose of the vaccine, while 100 were given a high dose and 100 were given a placebo.

After being jabbed, the women stopped using birth control and were followed up over two malaria seasons spanning almost two years.

Researchers also followed any babies born up to their first birthday, to analyse the impact the vaccine had on them.

In the high dose group, efficiency of the vaccine against malaria infection was 86% during the first year in women who went on to get pregnant. The jab’s efficiency in the low dose group during pregnancy was 57% over the two seasons.

Researchers also found efficiency in the low dose group to be as high, or higher, in the second year as the first year at 61% without boosting.

Alassane Dicko, who leads the team at the Malaria Research and Training Centre (MRTC) in Bamako, Mali, said: “This is a tremendous advance for protecting women against malaria before and during pregnancy.”

Vaccinated patients also fell pregnant sooner, researchers found.

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Mr Dicko added: “We were excited to see significant vaccine efficacy against Pf infection not only in the first year but through a second intense malaria transmission when administered pre-conception.

“We were also surprised to find an additional positive outcome, that pregnancies developed sooner in vaccinated participants.”

Babies, children under the age of five, pregnant women and people with HIV or Aids are all at higher risk of severe infection.

The first malaria vaccine – RTS,S – was recommended by WHO to prevent malaria in children in October 2021.

It has reached almost two million youngsters in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi through WHO’s Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme.

In October last year, WHO recommended the programmatic use of malaria jabs for children living in endemic areas, which includes the RTS,S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M vaccines.

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