Cote d’Ivoire received its first malaria vaccines this week, the government announced on Saturday that Malaria kills four people every day in the country, the most of them are tiny children.
The government reported that 656,600 pills have been received, which will “initially vaccinate 250,000 children aged between 0 and 23 months” in 16 locations.
Although the number of malaria-related deaths in Cote d’Ivoire has decreased from 3,222 in 2017 to 1,316 in 2020, the disease “remains the leading cause of medical consultations” according to the Ministry of Health.
Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic have all given their approval for the R21/Matrix-M vaccine.
The Ivorian government is also distributing mosquito nets and spraying insecticide in endemic areas.
Malaria causes fever, headaches, and chills, and can become serious or even fatal if left untreated.
In 2022, it caused more than 600,000 deaths worldwide, 95 percent of them in Africa, and 80 percent of them in children under the age of 5, according to the WHO.
The vaccine is the second malaria vaccine that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended for children and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).