YAOUNDÉ,
Cameroon
Cameroon will be the first country to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine as the shots are rolled out in Africa.
The campaign due to start
Monday was described by officials as a milestone in the decades-long effort to
curb the mosquito-spread disease on the continent, which accounts for 95% of
the world’s malaria deaths.
“The vaccination will save
lives. It will provide major relief to families and the country’s health
system," said Aurelia Nguyen, chief program
officer at the Gavi vaccines alliance, which is helping Cameroon secure the
shots.
The Central Africa nation
hopes to vaccinate about 250,000 children this year and next year. Gavi said it
is working with 20 other African countries to help them get the vaccine and
that 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 will use the first of
two recently approved malaria vaccines, known as Mosquirix. The World Health
Organization endorsed the vaccine two years ago, acknowledging that that even
though it is imperfect, its use would still dramatically reduce severe
infections and hospitalizations.
The GlaxoSmithKline-produced
shot is only about 30% effective, requires four doses and protection begins to
fade after several months. The vaccine was tested in Africa and used in pilot
programs in three countries.
GSK has said it can only
produce about 15 million doses of Mosquirix a year and some experts believe a
second malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University and approved by WHO in
October might be a more practical solution. That vaccine is cheaper, requires
three doses and India’s Serum Institute said they could make up to 200 million
doses a year.
Gavi's Nguyen said they hoped
there might be enough of the Oxford vaccines available to begin immunizing
people later this year.
Neither of the malaria
vaccines stop transmission, so other tools like bed nets and insecticidal
spraying will still be critical. The malaria parasite mostly spreads to people
via infected mosquitoes and can cause symptoms including fever, headaches and chills.
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