Malaria is one of the leading diseases that are killing people in the Eastern parts of Africa. The fantastic news reaching our desk is that there has been a vaccine that is now being tested in Kenya.
Malaria has registered a staggering number of deaths in the East and Central parts of Africa and the entire country at large and measures to end the situation have been going on for a while and so far, the continent has been relying on mosquito treated nets to prevent the disease.
In recent past, new technique was launched in Uganda to try and get rid of the Anopheles mosquito that causes the malaria by eradicating the females, however the number of malaria cases kept on increasing.
The Ministry of Health in Uganda recently, stated that they had registered the highest number of malaria cases in the country as compared to recent years and that the situation was becoming alarming.
However, as darkness was looming on in the East African countries, a ray of hope seems to have been found as the BBC reported that malaria vaccine was being used in Kenya, a neighboring country to Uganda.
The world’s first malaria vaccine is being rolled out in parts of Kenya from Friday, after previously being released in Ghana and Malawi.
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 – making this vaccine a potential game-changer.
The trial is still on smaller numbers but the belief is that once it is registering success across the countries in which it has been launched, then this will be deployed across the entire continent to be able to fight a disease that is wiping out so many people.
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