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Shipments of the world’s first WHO-recommended malaria vaccine, RTS,S, have begun with 331,200 doses landing on 21 November 2023 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, according to Gavi – the vaccine alliance.

The delivery is the first to a country not previously involved in the malaria vaccine pilot programme and signals that scale-up of vaccination against malaria across the highest-risk areas on the African continent will begin shortly.
 
Nearly every minute, a child under five dies of malaria. In 2021, there were 247 million malaria cases globally, which led to 619,000 deaths. Of these deaths, 77 per cent were children under 5 years of age, mostly in Africa. Malaria burden is the highest on the African continent, which accounts for approximately 95% of global malaria cases and 96% of related deaths in 2021.
 
A further 1.7 million doses of the RTS,S vaccine were expected to arrive in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone in weeks, with additional African countries set to receive doses in the months ahead. Several countries are now in the final stage of preparations for malaria vaccine introduction into routine immunisation programmes, which should see first doses administered in Q1 2024.