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Sub-Saharan Africa is in the grip of a severe outbreak of Cholera. So far, no malaria vaccine has stopped transmission
Burkina Faso became the second country in the African Region to adopt the malaria vaccine as a preventive measure. By that, it will be included in its routine immunization schedule. The decision to go ahead with injecting the Malaria vaccine was taken yesterday (5th February) by the top military junta as it officially introduced the RTS, S malaria vaccine into its expanded vaccination program across 27 health districts.
The World Health Organization endorsed the vaccine two years ago. Even though it is imperfect, WHO thinks that its use would dramatically reduce severe infections and hospitalizations. Sub-Saharan Africa is in the grip of a severe outbreak of Cholera. So far, no malaria vaccine has stopped transmission. So, tools like tools like bed nets and insecticidal spraying will still be critical. The malaria parasite mostly spreads to people via infected mosquitoes and can cause symptoms including fever, headaches, and chills.
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Burkina Faso is one of the worst-hit places in the world. In 2021. Over 12.5 million cases of the disease were recorded across the country. That works out to an incidence rate of 569 cases per 1,000 population, which is extremely high. Officially, 4,355 people were reported to have died of the parasitic infection. However, the World Health Organization estimates that the actual death toll that year stood as high as 18,976. Cameroon started the world’s first malaria vaccine program for children on January 22nd. The initial phase of the vaccine roll-out in Burkina Faso aims to reach nearly 250,000 children aged 5–23 months, across 27 health districts out of the total 70.
