Cameroon begins ‘historic’ routine roll out of malaria vaccine

The world’s first routine roll out of the malaria vaccine has kicked off in Cameroon.

The vaccine roll out kicked off on Monday with a baby girl named Daniella receiving the first jab of the RTS,S vaccine at a health facility near Yaoundé.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) endorsed the widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine in October 2021.

The endorsement followed a two-year vaccination programme, which involved more than 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

The vaccine, which is recommended for children from five months of age to around 18 months, has an efficacy of 39 percent.

Cameroon is offering the vaccine free of charge to all infants up to the age of six months old in four doses.

In a social media post on Monday, the WHO described the vaccine drive as a “historic step” towards wider vaccination against one of the deadliest diseases for African children.

“For this initial malaria vaccination drive targeting 42 districts, Cameroon received 330,000 doses of the RTS,S vaccine last November,” the post reads.

Shalom Ndoula, a Cameroonian doctor who helped to lead the rollout in his country, said although the vaccine has a relatively low efficacy, it is an important “additional tool” in the fight against malaria.

“We have a capacity to considerably reduce the number of cases and deaths from malaria and accelerate the elimination of the disease,” he said.

Meanwhile, 20 other countries aim to roll out the programme this year including Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone.