Cameroon officially launched its malaria vaccination program last week — a move that has been described as historic, as it’s the first antimalarial vaccine to be recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Cameroon is the first country to roll out the vaccine outside the pilot phase carried out in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The vaccine’s official label is RTS,S, and will now be included as a part of Cameroon’s routine immunization program. At its early stages, the program will vaccinate children aged 0-24 months.

Although the program is in its infancy, Dr. Shalom Tschokfe Ndoula, Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Cameroon, shares his “satisfaction and pride a week after the launch of malaria vaccination in our country,” in an interview with OkayAfrica. “The main lesson we have learned is that people are very concerned about their health problems and expect vaccination to alleviate their suffering from malaria.”

Of the estimated 600,000 people who die of malaria across Africa every year, children under five make up 80 percent of cases. Monday was a day of jubilation for Cameroonian officials overseeing the vaccine program, as a baby girl named Daniella received the inaugural jab which was administered at a health facility near the country’s capital Yaoundé.

“We remain focused on their needs and address any concerns they may have about vaccination and other malaria control tools. We look forward to the new challenges of strengthening malaria epidemiological surveillance to demonstrate the efficacy of vaccination and prepare for the extension of coverage to the whole country over the next few years,” Ndoula said.

There were 6.7 million recorded malaria cases in Cameroon in 2021, resulting in 13,839 deaths in the same year, according to the WHO. The government has spent the last ten years trying to strengthen its position on the war against the parasitic infection. Last November, the nation announced that they had received 331,200 doses of the antimalarial vaccine. The doses will be available free of charge and distributed to 42 health districts across Cameroon’s ten regions – roughly 20 percent of the country’s total health districts. Major emphasis is being put on the country’s Northern and Far North regions who battle malaria transmission based on the seasons.

The program is being implemented in collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi says it is working with 20 African countries aiming to introduce the vaccine to approximately 6.6 million children through 2024 and 2025. Last year, Ghana became the first country to approve a malaria vaccine created by Oxford University.