The Beninese government has received 215,590 doses of malaria vaccine, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday.
According to the Minister of Health, Professor Benjamin Hounkpatin, the malaria vaccine is an important step towards wider vaccination against one of the deadliest diseases affecting African children.
Benin is the third country to receive doses of malaria vaccine, after Cameroon and Sierra Leone, and will be able to start administering it to children under the age of two in a few months’ time, the Minister added.
He said that the introduction of the vaccine into the Expanded Programme on Immunisation is a major step forward in the fight against this disease in Benin.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), almost every minute a child under the age of 5 dies of malaria.
In 2021, the world recorded 247 million cases of malaria and 619,000 malaria-related deaths.
Of those who died, 77% were children under the age of 5, and the majority lived in Africa, the continent most affected.
In the same year, Africa accounted for almost 95% of cases worldwide and 96% of deaths linked to the disease.
In Benin, malaria is the leading cause of death among children. According to WHO data for 2020, more than 4.7 million cases of malaria and 10,000 deaths were reported, mainly among children under 5.
