The first malaria vaccination campaign for children backed by the World Health Organization begins in Africa on Monday, with the distribution of nearly 30mn jabs in the coming months marking a milestone in the fight against the tropical disease.
Children in Cameroon will begin receiving malaria vaccines as part of a rollout of the medicine developed by UK pharmaceutical company GSK in up to 12 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. A second vaccination developed by scientists at Oxford university and produced by the Serum Institute of India is set to be delivered in seven countries in May or June.
The distribution of an initial 18mn doses marks a significant turning point in the fight against malaria, a preventable disease caused by parasites transmitted by mosquitoes that killed 608,000 people — 95 per cent of them in Africa — in 2022.