Luanda - Angola has joined the group of countries seeking to acquire malaria vaccine in Africa, the country's Health minister Sílvia Lutucuta said Saturday.
"We are working, in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies, which have the authorization to certify vaccines. We’ve put our country in the race for the acquisition of a malaria vaccine that will be a revolution for us", Lutucuta said.
The minister, who was speaking at the end of an assessment visit to some Luanda hospitals, underlined the need to prevent people from catching the disease instead of simply providing medical assistance at hospitals.
"We need to take a set of measures", said the minister, stressing that the government is concerned and working in a coordinated way to improve health care services to the population.
Recently, the World Health Organization, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and the Unicef announced that the first malaria vaccine will be distributed for the first time to twelve African countries in the next two years.
As of 2019, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have significantly increased the administration of the malaria vaccine through a pilot programme, which has reached more than 1.7 million children in the three countries, proving to be safe and effective.
Although 28 countries have expressed interest in receiving this first malaria vaccine, only 12 countries will receive the 18 million doses available.
The choice of countries had to do with the definition of the most needed areas, where the risk of disease and death of malaria among children is higher.
Official data show that Angola registered, in the first quarter, more than two million cases, 2,673 deaths in 2022, according to official data at least 9.2 million of malaria cases have been reported, with people over 15 years of age being group most affected with 38 percent of cases.
In Angola, malaria is a serious public health problem and leading cause of overall morbidity and mortality.
Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in Africa, killing nearly half a million children under the age of 5 every year, and accounts for approximately 95 percent of the world's malaria cases and 96 percent of deaths in 2021. VM/amp/jmc
