The DRC receives a first batch of doses of the anti-malaria vaccine

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) received a first batch of 693,500 doses of the anti-malaria vaccine to vaccinate children aged 6 to 23 months against malaria, a disease that affects millions of people in the DRC and across the African continent, announced the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday June 14 in a press release.

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According to the press release, this R 21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has already been successfully introduced in several African countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

“We are receiving for the first time in the DRC the vaccine to fight malaria, which is one of the major causes of mortality, particularly among children. It therefore goes without saying that all the solutions we can use to reduce mortality due to this disease are important.“, said Roger Samuel Kamba, Minister of Public Health of the DRC.

The DRC reported 27,657,762 cases of malaria, including 24,344 deaths, in 2023, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health.

Since October 2, 2023, the RTS, S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M vaccines have been recommended by the WHO to prevent malaria in children, observers recall.

APS/VNA/CVN