DRC includes malaria vaccine in children’s vaccination schedule
Photo: Archive
November 1, 2024 Hour: 9:01 pm
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday included the anti-malaria drug in the children’s vaccination schedule, the leading cause of death in Congolese children, local health authorities reported.
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The campaign, which has already begun in the Kasangulu health zone in the province of Kongo Central (center) – one of the most affected – includes the administration of four doses of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine, prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO), to children up to two years old.
The drug is added to other measures already being applied in the DRC, such as the distribution of mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide to combat malaria.
The DRC received a batch of 693,500 doses of the anti-malaria vaccine last June, which, according to Unicef, is intended to vaccinate children between 6 and 23 months.
In 2022, the continent accounted for 94% of all malaria cases in the world – half of them in Nigeria, DRC, Uganda and Mozambique – and 95% of all deaths, according to the WHO.
Progress in combating the disease has stalled since 2017 due to factors such as the climate crisis, humanitarian crises, poor access to and insufficient quality of health services, gender barriers, biological threats such as insecticide resistance and global economic crises.
These vaccines provide partial immunity and, once someone has received the vaccine, they can still contract malaria, albeit with lower probability and virulence.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: EFE-Africanews
