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Available for over a year

Malaria kills a child in Africa every 60 seconds. Nigeria is the country with the highest deaths from the disease on the continent. According to the World Health Organisation, it accounted for 32% of all deaths in the world, with 220,000 deaths in 2021. Recently, Nigeria provisionally approved the new R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine which has been developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, following Ghana which became the first country to approve the vaccine. Following previous trials, R21 appears to be hugely effective in stark contrast to previous ventures in the same field but is yet to be approved by the WHO. Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, says malaria is a crisis on the continent and he is not surprised by Ghana and Nigeria acting quickly to approve the vaccine. (Photo: Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma. Credit: Africa CDC)