Benin receives its first doses of the anti-malaria vaccine

Benin announced that on Monday evening it received its first doses of the vaccine against malaria, which is the main cause of child death in the country, and that it will begin administering the doses in the coming months.
“Malaria remains endemic and represents the main cause of death for children under the age of five in Benin,” Benin Minister of Health Benjamin Honkbatane told reporters at Cotonou airport during the arrival of a shipment of 215,900 doses of the RTS,S vaccine.
He added that the first doses would be administered “within a few months.”
40% of outpatient medical consultations in Benin and 25% of hospital admissions are related to malaria, according to the minister.
Faustin Yao, a vaccination expert at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) office in Benin, indicated to Agence France-Presse that the vaccine doses received by the country are intended to vaccinate “thousands of children” under the age of two, according to a vaccination schedule of four doses at the age of six months, then seven months, then nine. months, then 18 months.
Benin is the third country to receive doses of the anti-malaria vaccine after Cameroon and Sierra Leone, after a pilot phase carried out in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, coordinated by the World Health Organization and funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Unitaid initiative.
More than two million children received the malaria vaccine in these three countries, which led to a “staggering reduction” in the death rate and a significant reduction in severe forms of malaria and hospitalizations, according to GAVI.
The World Health Organization says that almost every minute a child under the age of five dies from malaria.
Malaria is transmitted to humans mainly through the bites of certain types of infected female mosquitoes, which occurs especially in tropical regions. Also, it can be transmitted through blood transfusions and contaminated needles. Its consequences can be mild, with symptoms such as fever and headache, but it can also cause death within 24 hours if exposed to the B. falciparum parasite, which is most common in Africa.