Benin Republic has received its first doses of a vaccine for malaria.
Benin’s Health Minister, Benjamin Hounkpatin told reporters that “Malaria remains endemic and represents the leading cause of death among children under five years of age in Benin.”
He stated this at Cotonou airport, where the government officially received 215,900 doses of the RTS,S vaccine, AFP reported.
The first vaccinations will take place “within a few months”, he added.
According to him, 40 percent of outpatient consultations in the country and 25 percent of hospital admissions are linked to malaria. 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, told AFP.
He said infants would receive four doses, at the age of six months, seven months, nine months and 18 months.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), twelve countries across different regions in Africa are set to receive 18 million doses of the first-ever malaria vaccine over the next two years.
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