NAIROBI – Kenya on Friday became the third country to start routinely innoculating infants against malaria, using the world’s first vaccine to combat a disease that kills 800 children globally every day.
The vaccine — RTS,S — targets the deadliest and most common form of malaria parasite in Africa, where children under five account for two-thirds of all global deaths from the mosquito-born illness.
Kenya, which is rolling-out RTS,S in the western county of Homa Bay, joins Malawi and Ghana, which earlier this year commenced their own pilot vaccination programmes supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Congratulations, #Kenya ??, for joining Ghana and Malawi – to launch the world’s first #malaria vaccine today! https://t.co/UwfzVOcOyA#EndMalaria? pic.twitter.com/9SnGwM2UWf
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) September 13, 2019
“This is the most advanced malaria vaccine that we have today. It has been in the making for the last almost three decades,” Dr Richard Mihigo, WHO’s co-ordinator of immunisation and vaccine development programme, said before the Kenyan launch, which will expand to other malaria-proneareas of the country.
