Following the approval by the World Health Organization (WHO) of two new vaccines, RTS,S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M, for malaria prevention in children, they are being administered in 12 malaria-endemic African countries, prioritizing areas with moderate to high transmission. These vaccines will be a game changer in the efforts to attain global elimination of malaria in the 35 or more malaria-endemic countries and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of a 90% reduction in malaria incidence and mortality by 2030¹. The vaccines are expected to prevent half a million child deaths annually. Addressing the cost and production limitation of the prior malaria vaccine (RTS,S/AS01), the new R21/Matrix-M vaccine will be mass produced and delivered at an affordable, minimal cost². These new vaccines come at a critical moment when malaria prevention and control programs are challenged by the impacts of climate change, the emergence of insecticide and drug-resistant strains, and new variants of mosquitos, particularly in urban areas.

An additional challenge in Africa is vaccine hesitancy, which has been seen for other new vaccines, including against COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccines activated widespread dissemination of vaccine conspiracies and misinformation³. Consequently, the general public have questioned the safety and quality of vaccines. For example, in Cameroon, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a substantial drop in pediatric attendance for routine childhood immunizations between 2020 and 2022, and these numbers have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels⁴. In some cases, vaccinators have been targeted and attacked due to misinformation and conspiracies against vaccines, including the killing of polio vaccination workers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, with the attackers alleging that the vaccines are administered to sterilize Muslims^5,6,7. This disinformation can quickly spread through communities, including via social media.

在世界卫生组织 （WHO） 批准用于预防儿童疟疾的两种新疫苗 RTS，S/AS01 和 R21/Matrix-M 之后，它们正在 12 个疟疾流行非洲国家进行接种，优先考虑中度至高度传播地区。这些疫苗将改变游戏规则，努力在 35 个或更多疟疾流行国家实现全球消除疟疾，并实现到 2030 年将疟疾发病率和死亡率降低 90%^{的可持续发展目标 1}。预计这些疫苗每年可以防止五十万儿童死亡。为了解决先前疟疾疫苗 （RTS，S/AS01） 的成本和生产限制，新的 R21/Matrix-M 疫苗将以负担得起的最低成本进行大规模生产和交付²。这些新疫苗的推出正值疟疾预防和控制计划面临气候变化、杀虫剂和耐药菌株的出现以及蚊子新变种（尤其是在城市地区）等影响的关键时刻。

非洲的另一个挑战是疫苗犹豫，其他新疫苗（包括针对 COVID-19 的疫苗）也出现了这种情况。COVID-19 疫苗激活了疫苗阴谋论和错误信息的广泛传播³.因此，公众对疫苗的安全性和质量提出了质疑。例如，在喀麦隆，COVID-19 大流行导致 2020 年至 2022 年期间儿童常规免疫接种的儿科就诊人数大幅下降，并且这些数字尚未恢复到大流行前的⁴ 级。在某些情况下，由于错误信息和针对疫苗的阴谋，疫苗接种人员成为目标和攻击，包括在阿富汗、巴基斯坦和尼日利亚杀害脊髓灰质炎疫苗接种人员，攻击者声称疫苗是为了对穆斯林进行绝育^5,6,7。这种虚假信息可以通过社区迅速传播，包括通过社交媒体。