Malawi
High hopes in Malawi as the country made history on Tuesday by taking the bold step to be the first country in the world to vaccinate children with a new malaria vaccine.
Mothers with babies below the age of 2 turned up in the week long vaccination campaign, in trust of the revolutionary vaccine.
“Finally my child has received the malaria vaccine. I am so happy because I know that she will not suffer from malaria and that I can concentrate on other important things,” said Hendrina Ositeni, mother.
The science fratenity has been looking for a vaccine against the disease for the past century, and after 30 years of experiementing RTS,S vaccine seems like the solution.
“We are still looking for new tools. So, this is one additional tool that will help us control malaria in this country and it has potential to save so many lives and also prevent so many diseases. For example, if we roll out this malaria vaccine after the pilot phase. This vaccine has the potential of preventing 1 million cases. And at the moment we are experiencing 6 million cases each year,” said Dr. Michael Kayange, Deputy Director Responsible for Malaria, Malawi Ministry of Health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the vaccine is “imperfect” , however there is hope that newer vaccines will be developed, following this first one.
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