Parents urged to take children for malaria jab

Parents and caregivers in the lake endemic regions have been urged to present their children to receive the malaria vaccine.

They have also been urged to ensure the children complete all the required four doses to get the best protection.

This is after the Ministry of Health officially expanded its malaria vaccination program to 25 additional subcounties in the lake endemic regions.

The RTS,S vaccine which will be freely available in all the immunizing health facilities within the 51 subcounties,  is targeting an additional 133,000 infants annually.

The launch took place in Vihiga on Tuesday.

Since the introduction of the malaria vaccine in 2019, close to 400,000 children have been vaccinated in the lake-endemic counties of Kisumu, Kakamega, Siaya, Homabay, Migori, Busia, Bungoma, and Vihiga.

“Since then, the malaria vaccine has continued to benefit children at risk with evidence of substantial drops of severe malaria and child mortality in the lake endemic regions,” PATH Kenya country director Carolyne Njuguna said.

“This is truly remarkable and I am optimistic that we will continue to see more evidence of reduced mortality and morbidity during the upcoming malaria vaccine expansion.” 

The malaria vaccine expansion follows the Kenya National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (KENITAG) recommendation for expansion within Kenya’s lake-endemic region.

Kenya is one of three countries alongside Ghana and Malawi where the RTS,S malaria vaccine is already in use, following the 2019 start of pilot or phased introduction in parts of the country.

“Over the past three years, we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in the number of malaria cases and hospitalizations from malaria in areas where the vaccine has been administered,” Health CS Susan Wafula said.

When the malaria vaccine was launched in Homabay in 2019, the lake-endemic malaria region had a malaria prevalence of 27 per cent which has now dropped to 19 per cent according to data from the Kenya Malaria Indicator Survey (KMIS).