ABIDJAN: In Abobo, a poor neighborhood in Abidjan, dozens of women with children strapped to their backs lined up outside nurses as Ivory Coast launched its first malaria vaccinations on Monday.
Sitting on her mother’s lap and holding her tightly in her arms, eight-month-old Awa cries at the sight of the needle as she prepares for her first dose.
“I’m happy. I saw all the mothers who came to be vaccinated against malaria,” Awa’s mother said with a smile.
Behind her, they comfort their toddlers and women.
“This disease is devastating and causes a lot of damage,” said Achiaou Aremu, a grandmother who came to Abobo to get more information about the vaccine.
She said she will have her grandchildren vaccinated soon.
“It won’t take long to prevent them from getting malaria because once a child has the vaccine, they are protected,” she said.
In Ivory Coast, the mosquito-borne disease kills four people a day, including three children under the age of five.
Malaria remains the leading cause of medical consultations, according to the Ministry of Health.
The country put the anti-malaria drug on the vaccination schedule for children after receiving 656,600 doses at the end of June.
Four doses are given free of charge at the ages of 6, 8, 9 and 15 months.
Manufactured by the Indian giant Serum Institute of India (SII), it is one of two malaria vaccines for children recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with RTS,S from British pharmaceutical group GSK.
They are estimated to be 75 percent effective in protecting against severe forms of malaria that cause fever, headache and chills.
“This decision marks a significant step forward in protecting our children from this disease,” Pierre Dimba, Ivory Coast’s health minister, said on Monday.
Among children under five, “malaria mortality fell from 49 per 100,000 children to 19 per 100,000 between 2018 and 2021,” but “remains high for the latter,” said Aka health official Charles Koffi.
“In Côte d’Ivoire, although the number of people dying from malaria has decreased significantly, the incidence has increased in the general population, but also in children under 5,” said Fatim Tall, WHO country representative.
In 2022, malaria will cause more than 600,000 deaths worldwide – 95 percent of them in Africa and 80 percent of them in children under five, according to the WHO.
Countries that have already authorized the vaccine include Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
Other countries, such as Cameroon, have started large-scale vaccination.
“The malaria vaccine is safe and effective,” the health minister said in an attempt to calm rumors circulating on social media that, for example, the vaccine makes women sterile.
But even if it is safe, it is not enough to eradicate the disease.
As part of its prevention policy, the Ivorian government is also distributing mosquito nets, spraying insecticides and asking residents to keep their places of residence clean – not always an easy task in some working-class neighborhoods of the economic metropolis.
Abobo resident Agathe Louis-Doh would like to see the authorities clean up her neighborhood. “There are rubbish bins piled up right next to my house,” she said, adding that the filth attracts mosquitoes and “all my children are sick”.
