By John Ikani
The Assembly of Health Ministers of the ECOWAS region on Friday announced that Nigeria and other African countries would get access to the newly developed malaria vaccine by the first quarter of 2022.
The Health Minister of Ghana, who is also the Chairman of the Assembly, Dr Kweku Agyeman-Manu, disclosed this to journalists at the 22nd ordinary session of the Health Ministers in Abuja on Friday.
According to Agyeman-Manu, countries, like Nigeria, would also support the West African region in the procurement of the vaccine.
He said, “We are expecting that the vaccine will be adopted and the rollout will begin in Africa as early as the first quarter of next year.
“For African countries, especially in the West African sub-region, we have been doing our own research on malaria. We have been getting resources and support to control malaria for some time now. What we are looking forward to is a vaccine that will help us eliminate malaria completely by 2030, and fortunately, that is where we are now.
“The next question is: How are we going to procure the vaccines? Resources will come from countries. Also, specific countries like Nigeria (and others) will have to do budgetary allocations.
“To support procurement, GAVI will continue to support us. We are working to ensure vaccine plants in Africa actually get to produce malaria vaccines too. Some countries have been identified by West African Health Organisation (WAHO) already.
“Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana are some of these countries that are leading with vaccine manufacturing, not only malaria, but other vaccines as well.”
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