Cameroon is the first country in the world to introduce mass vaccination against malaria
Cameroon has officially launched a state campaign for mass vaccination of children against malaria. The country has become the first in the world to include this vaccination in the national immunization calendar, reports the African Regional Office of the World Health Organization.
More than 600,000 people die from malaria each year, 95 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the WHO. Nearly 80 percent of those deaths are children under the age of five. Cameroon is among the 11 countries most affected by the infection, with more than three million cases and more than 3,800 deaths in 2021. The national campaign in the country was preceded by a pilot vaccination program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, running from 2019. It has been recognized as a success - more than two million children from five months of age have been vaccinated and all-cause mortality in the relevant age group has decreased by 13 percent.
Cameroon received more than 330,000 doses of vaccine to start the vaccination campaign and they were distributed to 42 health directorates in all ten regions of the country. The primary goal is to vaccinate all children who were six months old on December 31, 2023. A full course of vaccination includes four injections by age two. Additional supplies of the drug are expected in the coming weeks, and it is provided free of charge to the public. The first vaccination of the campaign was shown on social media by the WHO Africa Office.
Recombinant subunit vaccine RTS,S/AS01, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, is used for vaccination. In pilot trials, it showed 33 per cent protection against malaria and a 22 per cent reduction in severe hospitalizations; WHO approved its use in 2021. Another recombinant vaccine, the adjuvanted R21/Matrix-M from the University of Oxford and the Serum Serum Institute of India, which has shown even greater efficacy in trials and is recommended by WHO, is expected to be added to the program.
State malaria vaccination campaigns are scheduled to begin in 2024 in nine additional African countries. Of these, Benin, Burkina Faso and Liberia have already received the drugs and are finalizing planning and preparations for childhood immunization.