Strategies for malaria vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic in African countries
Date
2022Author
Narain, Kapil
Rackimuthu, Sudhan
Okonji, Osaretin Christabel
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Since October 2021, the World Health
Organization (WHO) recommends the
use of RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine for children in areas of moderate
to high transmission of Plasmodium
falciparum in Africa.1
The vaccine can
reduce the 241 million cases of malaria
and 627 000 malaria deaths worldwide;2,3
it is much needed in the WHO African
Region, which accounts for 228 million cases of malaria (95% of global
cases) and about 96% of global malaria
deaths.2
However, an effective vaccine
roll-out in Africa can only be achieved
when region-specific challenges can
be overcome; intraregional inequality,
health-care systems strengthening and
lessons from community engagement
in previous public health crises.