Cameroon received its first shipment of Mosquirix malaria vaccines manufactured by British drugmaker GSK Plc late on Tuesday, as the nation struggles with the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 600,000 each year globally.
YAOUNDE, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Cameroon received its first shipment of Mosquirix malaria vaccines manufactured by British drugmaker GSK Plc late on Tuesday, as the nation struggles with the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 600,000 each year globally.
A batch of 331,200 doses of the vaccine - also known as RTS,S - was offloaded at Yaounde’s Nsimalen International Airport, making Cameroon the first African country to receive the vaccine after the pilot programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
Today, we have a vaccine which comes to add to the panoply of measures already rolled out," Malachie told reporters at Nsimalen.
Inoculations will begin next month or early next year, according to a health official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
GSK says more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have already received at least one dose of the shot, and that it would be rolled out in another nine malaria-endemic countries, of which Cameroon is one, from early next year.
UNICEF representative Juliette Haenni said it was a historic moment to protect children.
The original article contains 289 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 38%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
YAOUNDE, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Cameroon received its first shipment of Mosquirix malaria vaccines manufactured by British drugmaker GSK Plc late on Tuesday, as the nation struggles with the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 600,000 each year globally.
A batch of 331,200 doses of the vaccine - also known as RTS,S - was offloaded at Yaounde’s Nsimalen International Airport, making Cameroon the first African country to receive the vaccine after the pilot programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
Today, we have a vaccine which comes to add to the panoply of measures already rolled out," Malachie told reporters at Nsimalen.
Inoculations will begin next month or early next year, according to a health official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
GSK says more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have already received at least one dose of the shot, and that it would be rolled out in another nine malaria-endemic countries, of which Cameroon is one, from early next year.
UNICEF representative Juliette Haenni said it was a historic moment to protect children.
The original article contains 289 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 38%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!