Health Minister Benjamin Hounkpatin made the announcement at Cotonou airport, where the government took delivery of 215,900 doses of the RTS.S vaccine.
The vaccination program
- The vaccination campaign is set to commence “within a few months,” with the initial focus on immunizing approximately 200,000 children under the age of two.
- Faustin Yao, an immunization specialist at the UNICEF office in Benin, outlined that infants would receive four doses at six months, seven months, nine months, and 18 months.
- In Benin, a staggering 40 percent of outpatient consultations and 25 percent of hospital admissions are attributed to malaria, underlining the urgency of addressing this public health concern.
Benin joins the ranks of African countries embarking on malaria vaccination efforts, following in the footsteps of Cameroon and Sierra Leone. The pilot phase of this initiative unfolded in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, coordinated by the World Health Organization and funded by the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, among other stakeholders.
GAVI reported that more than two million children have been vaccinated in these three African countries, resulting in a “spectacular decline” in mortality rates, along with a significant reduction in severe forms of malaria and hospitalizations.
What you should know
- Malaria, caused by a parasite transmitted by specific mosquito species, remains a formidable challenge, compounded by increasing resistance to treatment.
- In 2021, the World Health Organization recorded 247 million cases worldwide, with 619,000 patients succumbing to the disease. Africa bears the brunt, accounting for 95 percent of cases and 96 percent of deaths.
- In November, Nairametrics reported that Cameroon became the first African nation to receive malaria vaccines.
