Daily Times

In Abobo, a poor neighbourhood in Abidjan, dozens of women with babies strapped to their backs line up in front of nurses as Ivory Coast kicked off its first vaccination drive against malaria on Monday.

Sitting on her mother’s knees and held tightly between her arms, eight-month-old Awa cries at the sight of the needle as she prepares to receive her first dose.

“I’m happy. I have seen all the mothers who have come to be vaccinated against malaria”, said Awa’s mother with a smile. Behind her, women are also consoling their toddlers.

“This disease is devastating and does a lot of damage”, said Achiaou Aremu, a grandmother who came to Abobo to get more information about the vaccine. She said she will get her grandchildren vaccinated soon.

“It won’t be long now, to prevent them from getting malaria because when a child already has the vaccine, he’s saved,” she said.

In Ivory Coast, the mosquito-transmitted 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 included the anti-malarial remedy in the vaccination calendar for children, after receiving 656,600 doses at the end of June.

Four doses are to be administered free of charge at six, eight, nine and 15 months of age.

Manufactured by the Indian giant Serum Institute of India (SII), this is one of the two malaria vaccines for children recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), along with RTS,S from the UK’s pharmaceutical group GSK.