Cameroon has announced plan to launched the world’s first routine vaccine programme against malaria.
The campaign commenced on Monday with a baby girl named Daniella receiving the first jab of the RTS,S vaccine at a health facility near Yaoundé.
Officials described the roll out 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 mosquito-borne disease kill over 600,000 lives globally every year, mostly in young children.
Cameroon would be offering the vaccine free to all infants up to the age of six months old in four doses.
The World Health Organisation in a post on Monday described the vaccine drive as a “historic step” towards wider vaccination against the parasitic disease.
It said, “For this initial malaria vaccination drive targeting 42 districts, Cameroon received 330,000 doses of the RTS,S vaccine last November.”
The vaccine has been in the making for nearly 40 years. It was first created in 1987, according to GSK.
