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Sierra Leone, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Liberia and eight other African countries are set to benefit from 18 million doses of malaria vaccine in the next two years.
The programme is part of the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP) coordinated by WHO with funds from Global Fund, Gavi and Global Vaccine Alliance.
The vaccine was first administered in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi with 1.7 million doses successfully rolled out in 2019.
Health experts said the vaccine helped reduce malaria infection and child death significantly in the three countries.
Sierra Leone will be benefitting from the programme for the first with plans to include it into their routine immunisation programme for the very first time.
Although the Government announced massive reduction in infant mortality, malaria is said to be among the highest killers of infant in Sierra Leone.
“Nearly every minute, a child under 5 years dies of malaria,” UNICEF Associate Director of Immunisation, Ephrem T. Lemango said.
Lemango said these malaria-related are preventable but the vaccine has the ability to grant a greater chance to children in the continent.
“The malaria vaccine is a breakthrough to improve child health and child survival; and families and communities, rightly, want this vaccine for their children,” said Dr. Kate O’Brien, WHO Director of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals.
She said the high demand for the vaccine and its ability will increase malaria prevention and saving many lives.
Research has said that annual global demand for the vaccine will increase by 100 million in 2030 with a second vaccine already in the pipeline for production.
