Dr Lucas Otieno, principal investigator at the Kemri Clinical Research Centre, is one of the people behind the pilot testing of the Malaria vaccine. FILE PHOTO | TOM OTIENO | NMG
The WHO picked Kenya, Malawi and Ghana to be the first countries to introduce the malaria vaccine, known as RTS,S or Mosquirix.
Kenya is now expected to put structures in place to help it implement the programme set to kick-off mid next year.
Kenya will be among the first countries in the world to include a new malaria vaccine designed for children into its routine immunisation programme after the global health agency issued a go-ahead today.
The World Health Organization (WHO) picked Kenya, Malawi and Ghana to be the first countries to introduce the malaria vaccine, known as RTS,S or Mosquirix, owing to the effort the countries have made in the fight against malaria and existing policy measures put in place.
Kenya is now expected to establish structures to help it implement the programme which is set to kick-off mid next year.
The first vaccine will be administered to infants at five months while the second and third will be given at monthly intervals.
The fourth dose will be given 15 to 18 months after the third dose.
“A child dies every two minutes from Malaria and there is need to accelerate interventions especially in low income countries to reduce cases. There is need to push down the disease burden in Sub Saharan Africa through every way possible and this vaccine will help a great deal,” said Nathan Bakyaita, a WHO official.
The implementation of the vaccine comes into place after 30 years of research involving health agencies world over and three clinical trials where Kenya, through the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and six other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
