A malaria vaccine, the first of its kind, is being rolled out in Malawi.

Dr David Schellenberg has been working on the development of the vaccine with the World Health Organisation in Geneva, and stated that after Malawi, the vaccine will be rolled out in respectively in Kenya and Ghana.

However, the Schellenberg insists that the vaccine is a measure that must be taken amidst other prevention measures as well. “Nobody is saying this is a magic bullet” he said, “this vaccine will add benefit in terms of protecting malaria, on top of use of mosquito nets… this vaccine just adds to a package of tools that were already in place to prevent malaria”

According to an interview on BBC, the vaccine guarantees a 40% malaria prevention rate. SevereMalaria.org shows that  Malaria cases in Malawi have increased by close to 350 000 between 2013 and 2015 while malaria-related deaths have declined by almost 15% between 2013 and 2017. Surely the vaccine is much needed.