Cameroon took delivery on Tuesday night of 331,200 doses of malaria vaccine, the first consignment to arrive in the country the health ministry said.
The vaccine was received by Health Minister Manaouda Malachie, who was accompanied by officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the Nsimalen International Airport in the capital, Yaounde.
“This is a historic moment facilitated by our partners to boost the fight against this disease responsible for 70 percent of deaths among children,” Manaouda told reporters.
“The vaccine will be very impactful in the fight against malaria and can prevent many deaths,” he added.
The vaccine will be administered on children in 42 health districts of the country that are mostly affected by the disease, officials said.
According to the WHO, 2.3 million doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine, RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S), have been administered to more than 800,000 children in pilot countries Ghana, Kenya and Malawi since 2019.
Cameroon is among nine countries to receive the second batch of the vaccine. The other countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable.
