The world’s first routine vaccine programme against malaria has started in Cameroon. 

Children in Cameroon will begin receiving malaria vaccines as part of a rollout of the medicine developed by UK pharmaceutical company GSK in up to 12 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

Cameroon is offering the RTS, S vaccine free of charge to all infants up to the age of six months old.

Patients require a total of four doses. Health officials say these will be given at the same time as other routine childhood vaccines to make it easier for parents.

 “The vaccination will save lives, it will provide major relief for families and the country’s health system and it will also be yielding important economic dividends,” said Aurélia Nguyen, chief programme officer at Gavi, the global vaccine alliance that is working with African countries to co-ordinate the rollout.

It comes after successful pilot campaigns in Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi – where the vaccine caused a 13% drop in malaria deaths in children of eligible age, says Unicef.

The jab is known to be effective in at least 36% of cases, according to US researchers, meaning it could save over one in three lives.

Approximately 40 million children live in countries affected by malaria and in 2021, 80 per cent of cases detected in the Africa region were among children under five years old.