Gynecologists’ have warned that it is not medically advisable for pregnant women and lactating mothers to receive the newly introduced R21 malaria vaccine.
Recall that Nigeria on Thursday received one million doses of the R21 malaria vaccine from GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
However, the maternal health experts said the reason for the exclusion was because the clinical trials done to ascertain the efficacy and reaction of the vaccine were not carried out on pregnant and nursing mothers.
This was contained in an interviews conducted by PUNCH Healthwise with a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Aniekan Abasiattai, and Vice President of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, Prof Chris Aimakhu.
According to the experts, the vaccine is safe for non-pregnant women. They stated that receiving it before pregnancy could reduce the risk of malaria infections during pregnancy.
According to Abasiattai, while the malaria vaccine had been proven to reduce infection rates in pregnancy when administered to women planning to conceive, it was not yet considered safe for pregnant women.
“There are ethical issues when you have trials on pregnant women. In relation to pregnant women, what I know of unless it has changed since science revolves every day, the vaccine is still in its experimental stages. Whether it has now been certified safe to be used during pregnancy is what I am not sure of.
“However, I am aware that the PfSPZ vaccine during the various trials that were conducted has clearly shown to prevent malaria during pregnancy. I think it was administered to women aiming to conceive. And when they followed these women through the course of pregnancy, it showed that it significantly prevented those women from coming down with malaria infections.
“So, if it does that, it would prevent the adverse effect of malaria both to the baby and the mother, including maternal deaths,” he said.
Abasiattai further added that information about the time and gestation week that the vaccine would be administered was not available.
He said, “Before vaccines can be administered during pregnancy, it has to undergo a certain amount of trials. Before the various drug agencies and bodies recommend its use in pregnancy, it has to be proven to be safe.”
Abasiattai, however, advised pregnant women to sleep under treated mosquito nets and ensured they protected themselves from mosquito bites.
The Vice President of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, Prof Chris Aimakhu, also agreed with Prof Abasiattai. He stated that the malaria vaccine would not be administered to pregnant women until trials have proven it safe.
“I am not aware that it has been given to pregnant women yet. At least, we haven’t started doing that in Nigeria,” he said.
Aimakhu stated that once the vaccine was confirmed safe for pregnant women, it could reduce maternal deaths caused by malaria.
“Malaria is still responsible for a huge number of women who have anaemia in pregnancy. It is responsible for women who are sick in pregnancy. So, if you have something that can prevent malaria, it is all well and good. But we are not giving vaccines for malaria yet. We are still giving the preventive anti-malaria drugs during antenatal,” Aimakhu said.
He also advised women to sleep under insecticide-treated bed nets.
source: PUNCH
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