Cameroon starts world-first malaria mass vaccine rollout - BBC News

It becomes the first nation in the world to roll out a universal anti-malaria jab for infants.

44 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, AFPImage caption, Eight-month-old Daniella, right, is the first Cameroonian child to get the jabBy Paul Njie & Natasha BootyBBC News, Yaoundé & LondonThe world's first routine vaccine programme against malaria has started in Cameroon, in a move projected to save thousands of children's lives across Africa.

The symbolic first jab was given to a baby girl named Daniella at a health facility near Yaoundé on Monday.

Every year 600,000 people die of malaria in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Children under five make up at least 80% of those deaths.

Cameroon is offering the RTS,S vaccine free of charge to all infants up to the age of six months old.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68037008?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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