A child gets a malaria vaccination at Yala Sub-County hospital, in Yala, Kenya, on October 7, 2021. – World Health Organization approved using the malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, on children between 5-month to 5-year old in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts with moderate to high malaria transmission after the malaria vaccine implementation programme in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019.
On October 9, the World Health Organization , after sifting through the results of the pilot scheme, recommended the vaccine for children aged above five months in locations with malaria risk. Djermakoye Hadiza Jackou, coordinator of Niger’s National Malaria Control Programme , said the WHO announcement was “welcomed with great joy.”Pointing to a major issue in vaccine rollouts, the WHO said it found “strong” public demand for the jab. The vaccine is made by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline , with the commercial name of Mosquirix.
“My child took the vaccine and nothing happened… I want to encourage every family with children below age two to go for the vaccine because it will go a long way to save lives.”The WHO says that the main side effects can include soreness at the injection site and fever, a similar reaction seen in other vaccines given to children.
“Some people discouraged me from giving him the vaccine because they said it’s new and can kill him but I think they said it out of ignorance.” Another enduring problem in malarial regions in sub-Saharan Africa is drainage — fighting the conditions that enable the Anopheles mosquito to breed and spread the parasite when it bites a human for a meal.