Photo: Jerome Delay | AP Photos
Cameroon will be the first country to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine as the shots are rolled out in Africa. The continent accounts for 95% of the world's malaria deaths. The Central Africa nation hopes to vaccinate about 250,000 children this year and next year, using the first of two recently approved malaria vaccines, Mosquirix. The shot is only about 30% effective, requires four doses and protection begins to fade after several months; GSK can only produce about 15 million doses of Mosquirix a year. A second malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University and approved by WHO in October is cheaper, requires three doses and India's Serum Institute could make up to 200 million doses a year. Gavi hopes enough of the Oxford vaccines will be available to begin immunizing people later this year. As neither of the malaria vaccines stop transmission, other tools like bed nets and insecticidal spraying will still be critical.
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