Over 100,000 children are set to receive life-saving malaria vaccines as the Ghana Health Service (GHS) expands rollout to 43 more districts in the Northern, Upper West, Savannah and Western North Regions.
The RTS, S/AS01 vaccines would be administered to children under five to offer them utmost protection against severe malaria, hospitalisation and deaths.
They would be given in four doses; six months, seven, nine and at 18 months as part of measures to reduce the malaria burden in the country, a social media campaign by the GHS announced.
Already, RTS, S/AS01 vaccines are being administered in 93 districts in eight regions of the country under Ghana’s routine immunisation programme.
According to the Service, about one million children had been vaccinated since 2019, when the malaria vaccine was introduced.
It is expected that between 2025 and 2029, all 261 districts of the country would have access to the RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccines as part of measures to fight the disease.
Health authorities have then encouraged parents to make their children available for the complete vaccination as Ghana strives towards eliminating malaria.
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has authorised the RTS, S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccines for under-fives and Ghana, along with Kenya and Malawi began the rolling out of the world’s first malaria vaccine in 2019.
Last year, the country became the first in the world to approve the newly developed malaria vaccine; ‘R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine’ which experts say, has higher safety and efficacy against the malaria parasite.
With children aged five and under five years of age as well as pregnant women are at higher risk of severe malaria because of lower levels of immunity, the vaccines are expected to reduce infection rate among such groups and the populace at large.
The Africa region continues to shoulder the highest burden of malaria globally, accounting for 94 per cent of all malaria cases (233 million) and 95 per cent of all malaria deaths (580, 000) in 2022.
Over 5.2 million confirmed cases of malaria with 151 malaria-associated deaths were recorded in Ghana by the end of 2022.
Under a new strategic plan, however, the country is targeting a reduction in malaria mortality of 90 per cent by the year 2028, using 2022 as the baseline.
Health authorities also plan to reduce malaria case incidence by 50 per cent and eliminate malaria in 21 districts considered to have a very low malaria burden by 2028.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
