Malaria jabs set for broader rollout in Africa

The United Nations heralded the forthcoming scale-up of malaria vaccination across Africa after the first shipment of doses arrived in Cameroon.

Since 2019, more than two million children have been jabbed in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in a pilot phase, resulting in substantial reductions in severe malaria illness and hospitalizations.

The delivery "signals that scale-up of vaccination against malaria across the highest-risk areas on the African continent will begin shortly," the WHO, the UN children's agency UNICEF and the Gavi vaccine alliance said in a joint statement.

The doses are donated by manufacturer GSK. A further 1.7 million doses are set for delivery to Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone in the coming weeks.