The national malaria fight program will soon vaccinate children from three to fifty-nine months in Haut-Katanga. The announcement was made Wednesday, June 25 to the interim provincial minister of health by a delegation from the National Ministry of Health in Lubumbashi.
This vaccination campaign aims to combat malaria, which makes a lot of victims in children of this age group.
« It is an intervention where we will administer to our children from 3 to 59 months a molecule called purimetanine ciphotaxine and amodiaquine. This administration is part of our prevention interventions in the fight against malaria “Explains Doctor Guy Esebe Deputy Director of the National Malaria Control Program.
The province of Haut-Katanga has been targeted, according to him, because it almost approaches the climate of Sahel, where we have a long dry season. And he will follow a rainy season with an intense rainfall, which is already starting from September and October. During this period, there is really the increase in malaria and deaths of children from 3 to 59 months.
This is why the Malaria Combating Program, together with its donors at the WHO level, ” A planned in the prevention package to also put such an important intervention, which is called the SMCI. It will protect at least 75% of our children against malaria. To put the intervention in place we will take six health zones, because it is a pilot phase ».
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine is designed to target the plasmodium sporozoist stadium, which is transmitted to humans by mosquito bites. It is during this initial phase that the vaccine turns out to be the most effective, because it fights the few sporozoites, ranging from 10 to 100, who enter the blood circulation before the parasite can multiply, explains WHO.
