The Nigerien government has given the go-ahead to administer the British malaria vaccine to children under the age of five to combat the disease, which killed more than four thousand people in 2021 alone.
A communiqué from the Council of Ministers confirmed this announcement, indicating that Niger was among “the countries eligible by the World Health Organisation, WHO.
The WHO had recommended the massive deployment among children of “RTS,S”, a vaccine from the British pharmaceutical giant GSK, the only one that has so far shown effectiveness in significantly reducing the most severe cases of malaria.
In 2019, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi began introducing the vaccine in selected areas.