Historic Moment As Cameroon Gets a New Malaria Vaccine

Cameroon has received more than 330,000 doses of a new malaria vaccine, the first to be approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Health Minister Manaouda Malachie described it as a historic moment.

Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi have already started distributing the RTS vaccine, which has to be administered in four doses.

Over the next few weeks, deliveries are expected in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger, and Sierra Leone.

Africa accounts for the vast majority of malaria cases worldwide. The disease kills more than 600,000 people globally each year, most of them children.

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Inoculations will begin next month or early next year, according to a health official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

GSK says more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have already received at least one dose of the shot, and that it will be rolled out in another nine malaria-endemic countries, of which Cameroon is one, from early next year.

A further 1.7 million doses of the RTS,S vaccine are expected to arrive in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger, and Sierra Leone in the coming weeks, the global vaccine alliance GAVI said in a joint statement with WHO and UNICEF.

Other African countries are set to receive doses over the next few months.

UNICEF representative Juliette Haenni said it was a historic moment to protect children.

“Children are the most concerned. The ones we are targeting are the six to 24 months old – the most vulnerable,” Haenni said.