Current Developments in Malaria Vaccination : A Concise Review on Implementation, Challenges, and Future Directions
(2025) In Clinical Pharmacology: Advances and Applications 17. p.29-47- Abstract
Introduction: Malaria remains a persistent challenge in global health, disproportionately affecting populations in endemic regions (eg, sub-Saharan Africa). Despite decades of international collaborative efforts, malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year, with young children and pregnant women enduring the heaviest burden. This concise review aimed to provide an up-to-date assessment of malaria vaccines progress, challenges, and future directions. Methods: A PubMed/MEDLINE search (2015–2024) was conducted to identify studies on malaria vaccine development, implementation barriers, efficacy, and vaccination hesitancy. Clinical trials, reviews, and global health reports were included based on relevance to the... (More)
Introduction: Malaria remains a persistent challenge in global health, disproportionately affecting populations in endemic regions (eg, sub-Saharan Africa). Despite decades of international collaborative efforts, malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year, with young children and pregnant women enduring the heaviest burden. This concise review aimed to provide an up-to-date assessment of malaria vaccines progress, challenges, and future directions. Methods: A PubMed/MEDLINE search (2015–2024) was conducted to identify studies on malaria vaccine development, implementation barriers, efficacy, and vaccination hesitancy. Clinical trials, reviews, and global health reports were included based on relevance to the review aims. No strict inclusion criteria were applied, and selection was guided by key review themes and policy relevance. Results: The introduction of pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines (RTS,S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M), represents an important milestone in malaria control efforts with promising results from the erythrocytic vaccine RH5.1/Matrix-M in recent clinical trials. However, the approval of these vaccines is accompanied by significant challenges such as the limited efficacy, the complexity of multi-dose regimens, and numerous barriers to widespread implementation in resource-limited settings. The review identified the complex challenges to broad malaria vaccination coverage, including logistical barriers, healthcare infrastructure effect, financial limitations, malaria vaccine hesitancy, among other obstacles in malaria-endemic regions. Promising developments in malaria vaccination, such as next-generation candidates (eg, mRNA-based vaccines), hold the potential to offer improved efficacy, longer-lasting protection, and greater scalability. There is a critical need to integrate malaria vaccination efforts with established malaria control interventions (eg, insecticide-treated bed nets, vector control strategies, and anti-malarial drugs). Conclusion: Achieving sustained control of malaria morbidity and mortality will require strong global collaboration, sufficient funding, and continuous efforts to address inequities in access and delivery of malaria control measures including the malaria vaccines.
(Less)
- author
- Sallam, Malik LU ; Al‐Khatib, A. ; Al-Mahzoum, Kholoud Sultan ; Abdelaziz, Doaa H. and Sallam, Mohammed
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- immunization programs, malaria control, malaria vaccine, Plasmodium falciparum, public health, vaccine efficacy
- in
- Clinical Pharmacology: Advances and Applications
- volume
- 17
- pages
- 19 pages
- publisher
- Dove Medical Press Ltd.
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:40191019
- scopus:105002459320
- DOI
- 10.2147/CPAA.S513282
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 41fc893b-9e99-439b-850e-cc9e344e44eb
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-28 13:22:03
- date last changed
- 2025-08-29 03:00:03
@article{41fc893b-9e99-439b-850e-cc9e344e44eb,
abstract = {{<p>Introduction: Malaria remains a persistent challenge in global health, disproportionately affecting populations in endemic regions (eg, sub-Saharan Africa). Despite decades of international collaborative efforts, malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year, with young children and pregnant women enduring the heaviest burden. This concise review aimed to provide an up-to-date assessment of malaria vaccines progress, challenges, and future directions. Methods: A PubMed/MEDLINE search (2015–2024) was conducted to identify studies on malaria vaccine development, implementation barriers, efficacy, and vaccination hesitancy. Clinical trials, reviews, and global health reports were included based on relevance to the review aims. No strict inclusion criteria were applied, and selection was guided by key review themes and policy relevance. Results: The introduction of pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines (RTS,S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M), represents an important milestone in malaria control efforts with promising results from the erythrocytic vaccine RH5.1/Matrix-M in recent clinical trials. However, the approval of these vaccines is accompanied by significant challenges such as the limited efficacy, the complexity of multi-dose regimens, and numerous barriers to widespread implementation in resource-limited settings. The review identified the complex challenges to broad malaria vaccination coverage, including logistical barriers, healthcare infrastructure effect, financial limitations, malaria vaccine hesitancy, among other obstacles in malaria-endemic regions. Promising developments in malaria vaccination, such as next-generation candidates (eg, mRNA-based vaccines), hold the potential to offer improved efficacy, longer-lasting protection, and greater scalability. There is a critical need to integrate malaria vaccination efforts with established malaria control interventions (eg, insecticide-treated bed nets, vector control strategies, and anti-malarial drugs). Conclusion: Achieving sustained control of malaria morbidity and mortality will require strong global collaboration, sufficient funding, and continuous efforts to address inequities in access and delivery of malaria control measures including the malaria vaccines.</p>}},
author = {{Sallam, Malik and Al‐Khatib, A. and Al-Mahzoum, Kholoud Sultan and Abdelaziz, Doaa H. and Sallam, Mohammed}},
keywords = {{immunization programs; malaria control; malaria vaccine; Plasmodium falciparum; public health; vaccine efficacy}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{29--47}},
publisher = {{Dove Medical Press Ltd.}},
series = {{Clinical Pharmacology: Advances and Applications}},
title = {{Current Developments in Malaria Vaccination : A Concise Review on Implementation, Challenges, and Future Directions}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CPAA.S513282}},
doi = {{10.2147/CPAA.S513282}},
volume = {{17}},
year = {{2025}},
}