- Written by Paul Nzi & Natasha Booty
- BBC News, Yaounde, London
The world’s first routine vaccination program against malaria has been launched in Cameroon and is planned to save the lives of thousands of children across Africa.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 600,000 people die from malaria each year in Africa.
At least 80% of deaths are children under 5 years old.
Cameroon provides the RTS,S vaccine free of charge to all infants up to 6 months of age.
Patients require a total of four doses. Health officials say it will be given at the same time as other routine childhood vaccines to make it easier for parents.
While the rollout is undoubtedly a relief and a life saver, the relatively low efficacy rate means it is not a “magic bullet”, argues Willis Akwale of the End Malaria Council Kenya. do.
But for health workers, it is an important additional tool to fight malaria, alongside bed nets and malaria tablets. All three together can protect children by 90% from malaria. Estimates from a UK-led study.
“We have the ability to significantly reduce the number of malaria cases and deaths and accelerate the elimination of malaria,” Shalom Ndula, a Cameroonian doctor who helped lead the rollout in the country, told the BBC. told Newsday.
The development of the RTS,S vaccine took 30 years of research by British pharmaceutical company GSK.
The World Health Organization, which approved the vaccine, hailed the launch in Cameroon as a historic moment in the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases.
“Safe, Effective, and Free”
Fears and doubts about the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations have led to hesitancy among some Cameroonians to get vaccinated.
“People say we’re being used as guinea pigs, but that’s not really the case,” said Wilfred von Mbacham, King of Cameroon and professor of public health biotechnology specializing in malaria. told BBC Newsday.
“We as scientists need to do more to educate the public about what it is and its benefits to allay people’s fears.”
Vaccinations officer Daniele Ecort told the BBC at a presentation on Monday that she was reassuring mothers after administering the vaccine to their children, insisting it was “a safe, effective and free vaccine”. .
But for others, the benefits are obvious.
At the same vaccination center in Soa, near Yaoundé, where Monday’s shots were administered, one mother told the BBC: “I decided to vaccinate my child to avoid malaria. This is bad and I don’t want my child to get it. It’s easy to die,” he said.
In 2021, Africa accounted for 95% of global malaria cases and approximately 96% of related deaths.
“I have been praying for this vaccine my whole life,” Mbacham told the BBC.
According to the WHO, Cameroon records approximately 6 million malaria cases each year and 4,000 deaths in health facilities, most of them children under the age of five.
Children aged six months in the 42 districts with the highest morbidity and mortality rates will receive four vaccinations by the age of two.
Twenty other countries aim to roll out the program this year, according to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance. These include Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone.
Vaccine Alliance Gavi says there is already a huge demand for vaccines, but only about 18 million doses will be allocated by 2025.
This falls short of what is needed by the countries the Alliance recommends recognition.
The expected rollout of a second vaccine, R21, developed by the University of Oxford, is expected to significantly increase the number of doses available.
It will be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, which aims to produce 100 million doses a year if it successfully passes regulatory approval following a recommendation for use by the WHO last year.
Additional reporting by Anne Soy