The Gavi Vaccine Alliance on Wednesday announced the rollout of 10 million malaria vaccine doses across the African continent.
According to alliance, the doses were delivered during the first year of routine immunization.
World Health Organization stated that malaria kills nearly 600,000 people a year. The Organization noted that the vast majority mortality are in Africa, with children heavily affected.
The report stated that in a pilot phase from 2019 to 2023, more than two million children were jabbed with the RTS,S vaccine in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. A development that resulted in substantial reductions in severe malaria illness and hospitalizations.
“The pilot also resulted in a 13-percent drop in mortality,” said WHO. This is even as the Organization now recommends RTS,S alongside R21/Matrix-M to vaccinate against malaria.
As a result of the success recorded in the pilot, routine malaria vaccination was rolled out in those three countries and 14 others. Starting in Cameroon in January 2024.
According to Gavi, more than 9.8 million doses had since been delivered. This is even as it estimated that five million children have received a degree of protection.
“The programme aims to administer four vaccine doses to each child,” Gavi said.
It, therefore, highlighted that it was seeking to “consistently reach those at highest risk in every country”.
Gavi, therefore, hailed “promising early results” from Cameroon, with reduced deaths in children under five.
“In a high-burden country like Cameroon, where malaria claims more than 13,000 lives each year. And represents close to 30 percent of all hospital consultations. Each percentage point reduction in cases, deaths and consultations represents lives transformed,” said Gavi chief Sania Nishtar.
“Overall, Africa accounts for approximately 94 percent of global malaria cases and 95 percent of related deaths,” WHO said.
“There were 263 million reported malaria cases in 2023, up from 252 million in 2022.”
“But the number of deaths from the mosquito-borne disease fell back slightly from 600,000 in 2022 to 597,000 in 2023.”
“More than half the deaths occurred in just four countries: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger and Tanzania.”
“Children under five accounted for about 76 percent of all malaria deaths in Africa.” WHO pointed out.
Following this, therefore, Gavi stated that it had planned to expand into up to eight further African countries this year. This is in a move “expected to protect an additional 13 million children”, it said.
Gavi noted that from 2026 to 2030, it “aims to help countries protect a further 50 million children with four doses of the malaria vaccine”.
source: Vanguard
Follow us for more news on our WhatsApp News Channels @
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaC505jB4hdZ5Yx9g82U