Children in Cameroon are now the first to receive the first malaria vaccination in Africa after Monday’s successful roll out of the jab. The symbolic first jab was given to a baby girl named Daniella at a health facility near Yaoundé, the country’s capital.
The World Health Organization, WHO says the vaccines are part of a rollout of the medicine developed by UK pharmaceutical company, GSK in up to 12 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. The jab is known to be effective in at least 36% of cases meaning it could save over one in three lives.
Every year, 600,000 people die of malaria in Africa, according to WHO. Children under-five make up at least 80% of those deaths.
WHO which approved the vaccine, hailed the launch in Cameroon as a historic moment in the global fight against the mosquito-borne disease.
It comes after successful pilot campaigns in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
