Dear Alka, Happy May! We have awesome news in the area of malaria prevention. A new malaria vaccine has been developed by the University of Oxford. The new vaccine, is 80% effective as compared to the current malaria vaccine which is 30% effective and was authorized by the World Health Organization last year. Late-stage testing is underway in Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya and Tanzania but initial results look promising. The new vaccine has the potential to save millions of lives especially that of young children.

Ghana has approved the vaccine even before this vaccine has been approved by the WHO. African countries do not want to be the last to receive vaccines as in the case of the COVID vaccine. Once approved by the WHO, the Serum Institute of India is ready to manufacture 2 million of doses at just a few dollars per dose.