Cameroon is going to achieve a milestone as it became the first country in the world to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine as the shots are rolled out in Africa. It was a decades-long effort to curb the mosquito-spread disease on the continent, which accounts for 95% of the world’s malaria deaths.
Aurelia Nguyen, chief program officer at the Gavi Vaccines Alliance, which is helping Cameroon secure the shots said, “The vaccination will save lives. It will provide major relief to families and Cameroon country’s health system.” The Central African nation hopes to vaccinate about 250,000 children this year and next year.
According to Gavi, it is working with 20 other African countries to help them get the vaccine and those countries will hopefully immunize more than 6 million children through 2025. In Africa, there are about 250 million cases of the parasitic disease each year, including 600,000 deaths, mostly in young children.
Cameroon malaria vaccine – Why it is important?
Dr Mohammed Abdulaziz, Head of Disease Control and Prevention at Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that the vaccine has gone through trials in several African countries to have a significant impact on reducing clinical cases, particularly in high-burden areas.
Beyond medical benefits, he said the vaccine has the potential to improve educational outcomes and cognitive abilities, breaking the cycle of adversity for future generations. He added that the partnerships involved in the vaccine implementation suggest that there would be equitable distribution of doses which in return could result in a decrease in malaria morbidity and mortality among children.
Cameroon Vaccine – It is already saving lives
The vaccine has already reached more than two million children and Kate O’Brien, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, said the vaccine’s safety and life-saving efficacy, have prompted a broader rollout across Africa as part of routine services.
It has already been implemented in large-scale programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, reaching over two million children, leading to a 13% reduction in deaths among eligible children and a significant decrease in severe malaria hospitalizations.
According to O’Brien, “The malaria vaccines have been shown to reduce clinical malaria cases by more than half in the year after vaccination. And that level of efficacy goes up when the vaccine is provided seasonally.”
“In that case, that prevents about three-quarters or 75% of malaria cases. So if we think about the 250 million in malaria cases that occur every year, a childhood vaccine with this level of efficacy can result in major reductions in malaria illness and death.”
