Rwandans on Sunday, April 25 joined the world to celebrate World Malaria Day, which was marked under the theme; “Zero Malaria Starts with Me.” The day is being celebrated at the time when Rwandans, like the rest of the world, are grappling with the global pandemic of Covid-19 which has for the past one year greatly disrupted global order. The day, which in Rwanda was marked in Bugesera District, was also being celebrated against the backdrop of a recent breakthrough in the search for malaria vaccine. This follows the encouraging findings this month by researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where a trial of a vaccine being developed returned results of up to 77 per cent efficacy, which significantly gave a boost to prospects of a malaria vaccine. The trials were conducted in Burkina Faso on a group of 400 children and according to the researchers, it will soon be expanded on 5,000 children between the ages of five months and three years across four African countries. This is encouraging news given that malaria kills at least 400,000 people globally annually, majority of the victims coming from sub-Sahara Africa. In Rwanda, despite the significant decrease of malaria-induced deaths from 700 in 2016 to 148 in 2020, it still remains a threat by all means. It is therefore time to recommit and not get derailed by the effort being put in the fight against coronavirus. As we wait for the vaccine, let us maintain the traditional methods of fighting malaria – clearing the bushes in our vicinity, avoid stagnated waters and use treated bed-nets in our homes. On its part, government should maintain the tempo of distributing the medicated mosquito nets to the most vulnerable families and encourage community health workers to remain close to households and always be on the lookout for the errant ones. Regarding vaccine development, African governments should by now be strategizing on the best way to swiftly make the malaria vaccine available to their citizens. They should be wiser. Enough lessons have been learnt by Africa from the Covid-19 vaccines, which up to now remain elusive to majority population on the continent owing to nationalism of the vaccine. Yes, malaria is more severe in Africa and less in the West which may make the appetite for the vaccine more in the former region and less in the latter, but we cannot leave anything to chance.
