World Malaria Day: Vaccine drive begins in Malawi; Ghana, Kenya to follow

Malawi, the southeastern African nation, became the first nation to introduce a large scale vaccination drive immunising children against malaria. Following the footsteps of Malawi, two other African nations Ghana and Kenya will also roll out the vaccination drive in coming weeks.

Hyderabad:Though Malaria is yet to be eradicated completely from many countries across the world, efforts are on to curb the spreading of the mosquito-spread disease. Malawi, the southeastern African nation, became the first nation to introduce a large scale vaccination drive on Tuesday immunising children against malaria. The drive kick-started just two days before the World Malaria Day which falls today.

Malawi aims at vaccinating over 1,20,000 children aged two years below with the RTS, S vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The vaccine which will develop and strengthen the immune system to resist malaria parasite was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2015.

Following the footsteps of Malawi, two other African nations Ghana and Kenya will also roll out the vaccination drive in coming weeks. “The drive aims at reaching about 3,60,000 children per year across the three countries,” said Pedro Alonso, director of WHO's malaria program.

Malaria and fatality

• Malaria claims more than 4,35,000 lives every year around the world. Mostly, children fall prey to the disease.
• According to World Health Organisation report, the death due to Malaria is highest in Africa. More than 2,50,000 children die of the mosquito-borne disease every year.
  

  World Malaria Day

About the RTS, S vaccine

• It took more than three decades of testing and a whopping investment of USD 1 billion to develop the vaccine.
• The vaccine needs to be administered four times – once in every month thrice and the fourth and last dose after 18 months.
  

  World Malaria Day

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