LILONGWE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Malawi's government has launched a malaria routine immunization pilot program in selected areas of 11 districts as an additional malaria control measure.
The vaccination program was rolled out on Tuesday. It is the first malaria vaccine provided to young children through a routine immunization program, according to the Ministry of Health and Population Services.
Malawi's government is implementing the vaccine program in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health as a way of reducing malaria cases among children, said Bestone Chisamile, secretary to the Ministry of Health and Population Services.
"Malaria vaccine RTS, S/AS01 -- also known as Mosquirix -- is an injectable vaccine that reduces malaria episodes by close to 40 percent in young children," said the secretary in a statement. "The vaccine acts against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite in Malawi and globally and (it is) the most common in Africa."
According to the statement, apart from Malawi, the malaria vaccine will also be introduced as a pilot program in Ghana and Kenya.
Young children in the selected areas will receive four doses of the vaccine by injection on the thigh. "Children who receive four doses and continue to use other malaria prevention measures have a significantly lower risk of suffering from both mild and severe malaria," Chisamile said.
He added that like other new vaccines, and in line with national regulations, the safety profile for the vaccine will be closely monitored.
According to Malawi's National Malaria Control Program, malaria remains a major public health problem in Malawi with over a third of the country's total population infected each year.
