Benin Republic has received its first doses of a vaccine for malaria, the leading cause of infant mortality in the country, and will begin administering them soon, officials said late on Monday.
“Malaria remains endemic and represents the leading cause of death among children under five years of age in Benin,” Health Minister Benjamin Hounkpatin told reporters at Cotonou airport, where the government officially received 215,900 doses of the RTS,S vaccine.
The first vaccinations will take place “within a few months”, he said.
In Benin, 40 percent of outpatient consultations and 25 percent of hospital admissions are linked to malaria, according to the minister.
The vaccine will immunise “around 200,000 children” under the age of two, Benin Faustin Yao, an immunisation specialist at the UNICEF office in Benin, said.
Infants are slated to receive four vaccine doses at six, seven, nine, and 18 months.
Benin, becoming the third African nation to obtain the vaccine after Cameroon and Sierra Leone, has witnessed a marked decline in mortality and severe malaria cases following successful vaccination of over two million children.
The initiative, coordinated by the World Health Organization and funded by entities like the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, originated with a pilot phase in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
Despite progress, malaria’s impact on Africa remains staggering, with 95 percent of cases and 96 percent of deaths occurring on the continent, emphasising the urgent need for widespread vaccination.
