Ghana Health Service to rollout malaria vaccination in 43 more districts

Ghana is taking a significant step towards eliminating malaria by expanding its rollout of the malaria vaccine to 43 more districts in four regions.

About 200 thousand children under 2 years are expected to be reached in the exercise which started on September 25.

Since its initial rollout in 2019, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have routinized the RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccine in select areas. Approximately 3.3 million Doses of vaccines have been given to a cohort of about 400,000 children under 2 since the vaccine introduction in 93 districts leading to a substantial reduction in severe malaria cases among children under 5.

Since the introduction of the vaccines in the country, it has been found to have significantly reduced severe malaria and malaria deaths in children under 5 from 20.6% in 2016, to 8.6% by 2023. While Malaria prevalence has also declined from 27.5% in 2011 to 8.6% in 2022.

Around 5.2 million people were diagnosed with malaria in Ghana in 2022, a drop from the previous year which had close to 5.8 million such cases. The vaccine has a schedule of four doses from the first 6month of the child’s life. The third phase of the rollout expansion is expected to reach some 200 thousand cohorts of children under 2 in the Northern, Upper West, Savannah and Western North regions.

Programme Manager for the expanded program on immunization, Dr. Kwame Amponsa –Achianno said the vaccine has been tested and proven to be safe and its benefits cut across the regions.

‘‘In Ghana, those districts that we have implemented the rollout, if you look at the data that malaria elimination program partners, I mean counterpart shared with us, there’s a downward trend in malaria cases, and we are very happy.

This third phase of the rollout will be done in 43 districts. We are looking at reaching some 200 thousand cohorts of children in these four regions. All the districts will not start today but most of them will. It’s routinized so we encourage the mothers to take the babies for the vaccines. There is a national elimination target and we are working towards that.” He explained

He further noted that the service also expects acute defaulting of guardians since that challenge has run throughout all the phases of the rollout exercise.

‘‘During the previous phases, it’s true we experienced a lot of defaulters. And so, we expect same at these new districts but minimal. We have learnt lessons from the previous phases of the rollout so we will surmount the challenges as we expand.” He added.

The country is working towards achieving its malaria strategic plan 2021-2025 which seeks to reduce malaria case incidence by 50 percent and malaria mortality by 90 percent while targeting an elimination plan for 2028.

The post Ghana Health Service to rollout malaria vaccination in 43 more districts first appeared on 3News.

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