Yaoundé – On 22 January 2024, Cameroon introduced the RTS,S malaria vaccine into its Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). It thus becomes the first country to include the malaria vaccine in its routine immunisation schedule, following the malaria vaccination pilot programme conducted between 2019 and 2023 in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
Following Cameroon’s lead, seven additional countries in the African region – Burkina Faso, Benin, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, South Sudan, and Mozambique – have introduced malaria vaccines to protect children against the disease. Malaria remains the leading cause of consultations, hospitalizations, and deaths in health facilities in these countries. This introduction is a major step forward in the fight against malaria and comes at a time when efforts are being stepped up to intensify vaccination against the disease in high-risk areas in Africa.
In Cameroon, the malaria vaccine was eagerly awaited, as the country is one of the worst affected by this disease, which is one of the deadliest in the African region. To begin with, 42 high-risk health districts in the 10 regions were selected for the introduction of the vaccine.
