New malaria vaccines helped Ghana slash child deaths. Then Trump and others cut aid.

LONDON/ACCRA –

New vaccines are helping Ghana approach a long-sought goal of ending child deaths from malaria, demonstrating the potential of the shots to drive back a disease that kills nearly half a million young children every year in Africa, according to the international vaccine aid group Gavi and the country’s health service.

But aid cutbacks by the Trump administration and other wealthy governments could mean fewer children benefit on the continent where malaria hits hardest, Gavi said.

Ghana is among the countries that had already made significant progress reducing malaria mortality by scaling up interventions such as the distribution of bed nets treated with insecticides and improving access to both preventive drugs and prompt treatment. Two new vaccines — one developed by British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L), the other by Oxford University and the Serum Institute of India — are helping close the remaining gap, said Dr. Selorm Kutsoati, who heads Ghana’s immunization program.