This is regardless of the fact that Nigeria accounts for an estimated 38.4 per cent of global malaria deaths in children under five years.
By Idris Saidu
365Daily – Nigeria has been excluded from the benefiting countries for the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) sponsored malaria vaccine.
Nine more African countries were unveiled as beneficiaries for the 18 million doses of the first-ever RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccine whose administration will begin in the last quarter of 2023.
This is regardless of the fact that Nigeria accounts for an estimated 38.4 per cent of global malaria deaths in children under five years.
The benefitting countries are Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Ghana, Kenya and Malawi already have access to the vaccine.
The vaccine is the first to be recommended for use by WHO to prevent malaria in children below five years.
The organisations issued a joint statement on the procedures for rhe disbursement of the vaccine, but did not state any reason why Nigeria was excluded from the beneficiaries.
It read on part: “Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have been delivering the malaria vaccine through the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, coordinated by WHO and funded by Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid.
“The RTS -S/AS01 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019 and has been shown to be safe and effective, resulting in a substantial reduction in severe malaria and a fall in child deaths. At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the malaria vaccine.
“In addition to Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, the initial 18 million dose allocation will enable nine more countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, to introduce the vaccine into their routine immunisation programmes for the first time.”