Let us scale up malaria vaccination when the time comes
Mosquitoes cause malaria.
What you need to know:
- Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries have made significant progress
- The vaccine, when used alongside existing measures has the potential to save thousands of young lives in Kenya
The world marked Malaria Day on Sunday and the World Health Organization (WHO) together with its partners are celebrating the achievements of countries that are almost eliminating the deadly disease.
These countries inspire all nations that are working to stamp out malaria.
Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries have made significant progress in their journey to becoming malaria-free while some countries have stagnated.
Kenya has made tremendous progress in the fight against malaria through the scale-up of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor residual spraying, and appropriate diagnosis and treatment through a combination of therapies.
Save thousands
In September 2019, the Health ministry, took a bold step and launched the malaria vaccine. The vaccine, when used alongside existing measures has the potential to save thousands of young lives in Kenya.
At the end of the vaccine’s pilot programme being implemented in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi, the WHO will convene in October and provide an advisory to the stakeholders on the wider use of the vaccine in Kenya and across sub-Saharan Africa.
We hope that as a country, when the WHO makes this call, we will be the first in line to scale up the childhood vaccination programme in all our counties, especially the ones with the greatest burden of the malaria.
This vaccination programme will keep us right on course towards eliminating the burden of malaria.
