Africa is on the verge of securing a malaria–free generation after it has now emerged that there is a vaccine that is soon going to be rolled out. This will come as a relief to many families in the continent that boasts of 1.3 billion population.
The vaccine, RTS,S, or Mosquirix, was developed by a British drug maker, GlaxoSmithKline. The vaccine has been under a tight pilot programme in a handful of African countries namely Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. The immunization programme has been taking place in these countries and the stakeholders say that the exercise has been very successful.
Speaking during Jeff Koinange Live (JKL) weekly programme on Citizen Television, chief researcher at KEMRI, Dr. Behnhards Ogutu remained positive that the vaccine’s total roll out would be very positive to Africans, since this is the continent that has suffered the brunt of malarial scourge for centuries now. “There was a need to do the piloting of vaccination to make sure that everything was right, and this has come to light this day and I think this has a lot of meaning to the African child,” said Dr. Ogutu during the interview.
Malaria disease causes many deaths in Africa even than the now deadly Covid-19. In 2019 alone, the disease claimed people’s lives of a whopping 386,000 reported cases in Africa, according to WTO estimations. If compared to Covid-19 cases – of 212,000 deaths in the past 18 months – malaria still stands to be the worst pandemic to African child than any other pandemic.
Responsibility is now on the shoulders of the World Health Organizations to roll out a massive vaccination program that will rope in the entire continent to safeguard the life of African child.
Statistics from the organization shows that out of the global number of cases of malarial deaths, 94% come from Africa. That alone underscores the need for this roll-out to be effected as earliest as possible.
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