More than 650,000 children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have received the malaria vaccine in the past two years since its launch, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday ahead of World Malaria Day to be marked on April 25.
Kate O’Brien, WHO director of the Department of Immunisation, Vaccines, and Biologicals said the three African countries had established robust infrastructure to ensure that children were inoculated against the tropical disease.
“Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi show that existing childhood vaccination platforms can effectively deliver the malaria vaccine to children, some of whom have not been able to access insecticide-treated bed net or other malaria prevention measures,” she said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
“This vaccine may be key to making malaria prevention more equitable and saving more lives,” she added.
More than 1.7 million doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine candidate called RTS,S have been administered in Ghana,…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
