By Lemuella Tarawallie
The Ministry of Health and partners last Friday (15 December 2023) received the first batch of 550,000 doses of malaria vaccines at the Freetown International Airport at Lungi, north-western Sierra Leone. They cost 5.5 million dollars.
This batch first was procured by UNICEF with supports from Gavi–The Vaccines Alliance and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Receiving the malaria vaccines, the Ministry of Health’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Sartie Kenneh, disclosed that in early 2023 they started the application process of procuring the vaccines.
He stated that the application was approved which had led to them receiving the first batch of 550,000 malaria vaccines. He added that the vaccines would be targeting children within the ages of 6 and 18 months for the first schedule.
The World Health Organization’s Country Representative, Dr Innocent Nuwagira, revealed that the vaccines were recommended by WHO. He noted that the vaccines’ introduction at a wider scale would be a game changer in the fight against malaria among Sierra Leonean children.
Dr Innocent Nuwagira concluded that apart from the countries which had tried the testing of the vaccines, (such as Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi), “Sierra Leone is the first to receive the vaccines at a larger scale”.
The UNICEF Country Representative, Rudolf Schwenk while officially handing over the vaccines to the Minister of Health, stated that the arrival of the vaccines would build on the groundbreaking work of the Malaria Vaccines Implementation Programme (MVIP).
Rudolf Schwenk added that the implementation process of the vaccines started in 2019 in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi. He noted that the work they had done in Malawi with the Health Ministry, WHO, and with other partners showed that through these vaccines child mortality could be reduced.
He said they had learnt from that experience which they could now apply in Sierra Leone to save the lives of children. He continued that UNICEF–Sierra Leone was very happy that they had worked together in planning, applying, and expediting the delivery of the vaccines to the country.
The UNICEF Country Representative concluded that his organization was looking forward to more collaborative efforts and sustained commitment of the Sierra Leonean government and its partners to make these vaccines accessible to all eligible children in the country.
The Minister of Health, Dr Austin Demby while receiving the 550,000 doses of malaria vaccines, stated that he wanted every Sierra Leonean to know that the vaccines were very important to the country’s fight against malaria.
He thanked UNICEF, GAVI, and WHO for their supports in making the arrival of the vaccines a reality.