Democratic Republic of the Congo launches malaria vaccine into routine immunization

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached a major public health milestone by successfully integrating the malaria vaccine into its national routine immunization programme. This remarkable initiative has just been launched in Mbanza-Ngungu (southwest of the country) by the Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, with the active participation of the Governor of Kongo-Central and the support of key partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), PATH, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), PMI , Breakthrough ACTION, SANRU and others. In June, DRC received a first batch of 693,500 doses of the malaria vaccine, designed to immunize children aged six months and over against malaria, a disease that affects millions of people in DRC and across Africa. The most recent data from the epidemiological surveillance system of the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare and...