Ivory Coast Receives First Malaria VaccinesIvory Coast Receives First Malaria Vaccines June 29, 2024 ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AFP) – Ivory Coast this week received its first vaccines against malaria, a disease that kills four people a day in the country, mostly young children, the government said Saturday. A total of 656,600 doses have been received, which will initially vaccinate “250,000 children between zero and 23 months” in 16 regions, the government said. Although the number of malaria-related deaths in Ivory Coast fell from 3,222 in 2017 to 1,316 in 2020, the disease remains “the leading cause of medical consultations,” the Ministry of Health said. The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been approved by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic. The Ivorian government is also distributing mosquito nets and spraying insecticides in endemic areas. Malaria causes fever, headache, and chills and can be serious or even fatal if left untreated. According to the WHO, the disease caused more than 600,000 deaths worldwide in 2022, 95 percent of which were in Africa and 80 percent of which were in children under five. The vaccine is the second malaria vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for children and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
FILE – In this Dec. 15, 2020, photo, a drop falls from a syringe after a person receives a vaccine at a hospital in Providence, RI (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
June 29, 2024
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AFP) – Ivory Coast this week received its first vaccines against malaria, a disease that kills four people a day in the country, mostly young children, the government said Saturday.
A total of 656,600 doses have been received, which will initially vaccinate “250,000 children between zero and 23 months” in 16 regions, the government said.
Although the number of malaria-related deaths in Ivory Coast fell from 3,222 in 2017 to 1,316 in 2020, the disease remains “the leading cause of medical consultations,” the Ministry of Health said.
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been approved by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
The Ivorian government is also distributing mosquito nets and spraying insecticides in endemic areas.
Malaria causes fever, headache and chills and can be serious or even fatal if left untreated.
According to the WHO, the disease caused more than 600,000 deaths worldwide in 2022, 95 percent of which were in Africa and 80 percent of which were in children under five.
The vaccine is the second malaria vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for children and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
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