Young children in Africa are the most vulnerable group where malaria is concerned.
Efforts to protect them are being scaled up. Kenya hopes the vaccine, RTS,S or Mosquirix, combined with other preventive measures could result in a drop in the number of cases.
We spoke to Kenya’s Malaria Control Programme to find out more.
According to the World Health Organization, a child dies every minute from malaria in Africa where it is estimated that 9 out of 10 malaria deaths occur. In 2013, there were 528 000 deaths from malaria and about 78% of these were in children under 5 years of age.
“In order to address these challenges I urge countries and stakeholders to focus on targeting available resources at places where the burden of malaria is highest,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Kenya will be among three African countries selected by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to introduce the world’s first malaria vaccine.
It is the only vaccine developed against malaria that has successfully made it to the large scale testing and in the next our years (2017-2021), the injectable vaccine developed by British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative will be administered to an estimated 720,000 children aged between five and 17 months in high-risk areas in the three countries.
