APA – Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) In 2023, the country recorded about 11 million cases of malaria, including 5,000 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
Earlier this week, Burkina Faso introduced the RTS,S vaccine into routine malaria immunisation.
“We are introducing a powerful weapon against malaria, and we’re starting with the RTS,S vaccine. This is a historic day because this vaccine will help to drastically reduce the number of cases and deaths associated with malaria,” Health Minister, Robert Kargougou said.
This first phase of vaccination covers more than 218,000 children aged 5 months in 27 health districts across the country. The target areas were selected based on the severity of malaria and the high mortality rate associated with this infectious disease.
“RTS,S is a safe and effective vaccine that is administered in 4 doses at 5, 6, 7 and 15 months of age,” Kargougou added.
The introduction of RTS,S into Burkina Faso’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation follows several pilot phases in Ghana, Malawi and Kenya.
According to Professor Halidou Tinto, one of the key players in this vaccination campaign, this is the first malaria vaccine to show good results in terms of safety and efficacy.
“WHO initiated a pilot phase. The results reassured the WHO that this vaccine was safe in terms of side effects and that it reduced cases of severe malaria, the cause of death in children under five, by at least a third,” he explained.
In 2023, the country recorded a total of 10,199,441 cases of malaria, with 502,077 severe cases and, unfortunately, 5,203 deaths, of which 3,721 occurred in children under five, representing almost 72 percent of all malaria-related deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
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