World’s first malaria vaccine released

International Desk: The world's first malaria vaccine is being rolled out in parts of Kenya from Friday (September 13).

It will be added to the routine vaccination schedule, and more than 300,000 children are expected to receive the vaccine over the next three years.

Malaria kills more than 400,000 people globally each year- mostly children.

According to World Health Organization, Malaria remains one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the life of one child every two minutes. Most of these deaths are in Africa, where more than 250 000 children die from the disease every year.

Children under 5 are at greatest risk of its life-threatening complications. Worldwide, malaria kills 435 000 people a year, most of them children.

“We have seen tremendous gains from bed nets and other measures to control malaria in the last 15 years, but progress has stalled and even reversed in some areas. We need new solutions to get the malaria response back on track, and this vaccine gives us a promising tool to get there,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The malaria vaccine has the potential to save tens of thousands of children’s lives.”

Source: BBC

risingbd/Sept 13, 2019/Mukul