Celebrating Impact: Cradle count; A new mobile app designed to help reduce infant/maternal mortality in Nigeria ....

A new mobile application that can help to reduce the scourge of infant and maternal mortality has been developed by a young and innovative Nigerian, Miss K. Nwokolo. This mobile application is called Cradle count.

It is to help reduce to the barest minimum errors in estimating the expected date of delivery, since one of the major challenges faced by pregnant women in Nigeria and in Africa at large, is unexpected delivery which in many cases have led to delivery related complications resulting in infant and maternal mortality.

This is very promising I must say because currently about ninety nine percent of the 830 daily maternal mortality cases that occur globally are recorded in Africa. One could easily link this trend to the poor infrastructural health facilities and inaccessible community health services, hence, tackling obvious and preventable causes like unexpected delivery can be a big pass in tackling infant and maternal mortality.

Improved access to skilled care during and after delivery, can lead to significant reductions in childbirth/delivery related complications. With the use of this mobile phone application proper preparations for skilled birth attendants at birth can be made.

Basically what this mobile phone application does is to inform pregnant women of the number of days left to the delivery of the baby and it has programmed alerts that remind pregnant mothers to register and follow up with their antenatal care provider.

This is a proactive approach to the prevention of cases of infant and maternal mortality. In a statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) earlier this month in Lagos, the innovative health care app could revolutionize the health sector in Nigeria and Africa by helping to reduce the number of deliveries that take place in the home setting without the assistance of skilled birth attendants.

Written By Jimoh Waliu

Review: Biomarker can predict risk of preterm birth from first half of pregnancy.

Biomaker stands for biological marker and it is used for measuring a biological process be it in a physiological state or pathogenic state. While biomarkers have been used to test the pharmacological effects of drugs in certain diseased conditions including the treatment of cancer in the past, a new research carried out in King’s college London indicates the possibility of using biomarkers to predict preterm birth from the first half of pregnancy.

Carrying out a standard biomarker test in the first half of pregnancy could help doctors identify women at risk of giving birth  prematurely and this will help health care focus treatments on women at high risk. Until recently, the major factor that is considered when determining the risk of preterm births in pregnant women is their past record of miscarriage or preterm birth, other factors include length of cervix and levels of biomarker found in vaginal fluid called fetal fibronectin.

What the team of researchers at King’s college London did was to further develop this bookmaker test into a more quantitative test that provides more levels than the usual biomarker tests carried out in the past. In the study …

While stating the benefit of this new biomarker test with higher accuracy and wider range of results it is hoped that in the future further trials will be carried out to ascertain whether biomarker testing at earlier stage of pregnancy could help intervene where necessary before cervical shortening is detected and in turn improve the chances of safe delivery in more women.  

With 8 African countries in the WHO's list of the top ten countries with the highest preterm birth rate and Nigeria ranking 3rd, this new biomarker test if adopted could help reduce incidents of preterm births in Africa.

Preterm births could then be predicted earlier and necessary interventions instituted to avert it.

Written By: Jimoh Waliu

Pneumonia and why Africans need to do more to prevent child deaths.

Pneumonia accounts for 15% of the deaths of children below the age of 5 all around the world. It has been the major cause of child mortality in the world and it is especially high in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, killing an estimate of 922,000 children in 2015.

Pneumonia is an acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs; it is characterized by difficulty in breathing. Pneumonia can be caused by viruses, bacteria or fungi, with Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenza being the commonest form of bacterial pneumonia infection, and Pneumocystis jiroveci the commonest form of viral pneumonia.

Symptoms of pneumonia are the same for bacterial and viral infections although they are usually more pronounced earlier in bacterial infections. Viral pneumonia infections usually display  symptoms more slowly. Some symptoms include; rapid breathing, chest pain, short breath, cough, fever and body ache.

Pneumonia in the under five population is a global issue, however it seems to be more prevalent in sub Saharan Africa due to public health related reasons. 

One major problem faced in combating pneumonia infection in children is its early and accurate diagnosis. This has led to a project called Pneumonia diagnostic project,which is funded by the Bill and Melinda gates foundation.

Pneumonia diagnostic is a project that aims at identifying accurate, acceptable, scalable and user-friendly respiratory rate timers and pulse oximeters for the diagnosis of pneumonia symptoms in children by community health workers and first level  health facility workers in four low-income countries. 

Another challenge is that most care givers do not recognize the signs and symptoms of this deadly disease and this often results in late presentation, diagnosis and treatment with increased morbidity and mortality.
 
The good news is that Pneumonia can be prevented by immunization. An immunization against pneumococcus could save the lives of millions of African children. Governmental and non-governmental organizations could design initiatives to scale up immunization efforts against this killer disease.

Concerning the prompt treatment of this disease, potent and effective antibiotics could be made available in public health facilities at cheap and affordable rates, while efforts to train community health workers and first level health workers continue. 

Access to health care should also be improved as this would aid in early presentation and detection which would also result in prompt treatment and an overall reduction in the morbidity and mortality due to this disease.

More awareness campaigns and activity need to be carried out, to teach care givers to identify this disease early and seek prompt treatment. 

The health of the under five population has a major correlation with the future of a society, we cannot afford to become complacent. The decisions we take today as regards the health of the under five population go a long way in determining the future of our continent.

Take action today against Pneumonia!
 
Written by: Jimoh Waliu

Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus in Africa.

One of the leading causes of child mortality in Africa and especially in the sub-Saharan region is Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus. 
It is known to claim the life of the newborn in just seven days and it can also lead to the death of the mother involved. 

It led to the death of about 49,000 newborns in 2013 alone and currently, on an average basis, it leads to 110,000 deaths annually in the African region.
Though this figure cannot be relied upon as it is estimated that less than 5% of the MNT cases are actually reported. This is due to the fact that especially in Africa, most women deliver their babies at home and infections, complications or resulting loss of life is not always reported. (WHO, 2013), (WHO, 2015).

Though this condition, has no cure and can really devastating, it can be entirely prevented through proper immunization in women of child-bearing age, and by maintaining hygienic child-bearing conditions. 

Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) is caused by a bacteria that lives in the soil, Clostridium tetani. When this bacteria comes in contact with open wounds, sore or injury, and especially the umbilical cord cut that is not properly treated, it can lead to tetanus infection especially if  immediate and proper medical care is not given. 

Due to the unhygienic conditions that often surround the child-bearing process especially in some rural African settings, the newborn and the mother are exposed to a high risk of infection with clostridium tetani and myriads of other micro organisms that cause some other infections and can result in neonatal sepsis as well.

Adequate maternal immunization can effectively stem the tide of maternal and neonatal tetanus.

Africa is said to have the largest number of MNT cases. 
This can be attributed to the non availability and scarcity of well equipped health facilities readily available for child bearing in many African settings. 

One of the major causes of this disease in the region is the unstable and relatively unreliable state of the health sector. In some places, access to quality health care is limited hence, forcing pregnant women to turn to home-delivery, delivery by quacks and/or local therapists. The problem with some of these local therapy homes is that they have poor hygienic conditions, thereby exposing the mother and the child to the risk of MNT infection. Also, the delivery tools they use are often times unsterilized and the practices around the child-delivery process are often unhygienic. 

UNICEF in their report on Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus stated that ‘MNT is a disease-and an indicator-of lack of access and development’. It is called the disease of the poor because it affects the poor, uneducated, and less privileged in the society. (UNICEF, 2010)

Lack of adequate infrastructure, knowledge about MNT and also indifference by the populace as regards the disease in Africa contributes also to the incidence of the infection despite the work that is being done to ensure the elimination of the disease.

As earlier stated, MNT is a very lethal disease but it  can easily be prevented by adequate maternal immunization. Hence, to reduce the occurrence of MNT, work is being done by UNICEF, WHO and other health bodies by ensuring the availability and easy accessibility to anti tetanus vaccines. Work is also being done to ensure that there are suitable clinics and hospitals that can be easily accessed in difficult to reach districts and rural places.

There is also the MNT elimination goal that was initiated by the world health assembly in 1989 where they set a goal to eliminate MNT in Africa by 1995. They did not meet this target, hence the global elimination goal was extended to 2005, and this goal too was not achieved. 

In response to the challenges experienced in achieving the global elimination goal, the World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) created a strategy called Global Immunization Vision and Strategy (GIVS) whose primary goal is to reduce the deaths from vaccine-preventable disease by two-thirds by 2015 compared to 2000 and this includes vaccination against MNT. 

I would say that this is quite realistic and statistics also report that with the help of GIVS, the routine immunization coverage has recently begun to rise specifically in the sub-Saharan region.(Microbewiki, 2010)

In sub-Saharan Africa and even in other parts of the world, vaccines against tetanus generally have consistently improved over the last 20 years. Despite this success, there is still more work to be done and that includes going beyond just vaccination. 

As it has been noted, MNT is especially known as the disease of the poor so the focus is been shifted from just global immunization through vaccination to improving the education, and the health system. 

This seems to be a holistic approach to the issue rather than the vertical which may just focus on how to protect ourselves against it through vaccinations. 
Hence, though immunization and global vaccination is being pursued, work is being done to address the underlying causes such as improving the education sector especially in the sub-Saharan region. There is also work to ensure steady improvement and growth of clinics, health centers and hospitals in terms of providing adequate infrastructure, innovation and increasing the numerical and qualitative strength of the medical personnel. 

Beyond just the availability of good health care, plans are in place to ensure that these facilities are made readily accessible even to the poor in the society.

There are also other organizations and collaborations working to combat MNT in Africa and also globally, however work still remains. With the influx of appropriate technology and the proper use of the social media as well as appropriate and timely interventions by health organizations and bodies, we are hopeful that MNT in Africa and even as a global issue would soon be a topic for the history class and our mothers and newborns will no longer be at risk of this devastating disease.

Written By: Paul Ozioma

A New Case of Polio in Mali .....

A release by the WHO on Monday states that there is a high risk of Polio spreading in Mali and Ebola-stricken Guinea.

Mali in more than four years had not experienced any case(s) of Polio until now.
A 19 month old child from Guinea who traveled with parents to Mali has become the country's first case of Polio in a long while.
The toddler was said to have been paralyzed on 20th July, seven days before being presented for treatment in Bamako, Mali's capital.

The strain of the Polio virus detected happened to be same as the one found in Siguiri, Kankan of Guinea in August of 2014.

Cory Couillard of the WHO said in a comment to Reuters that :

"The risk of spread is considered to be high in both countries due to low rates of vaccination coverage in both Mali and Guinea,"

This current case was found to have been caused by the 'type 2' strain of the Polio virus.

The case also is that of vaccine derived polio; which means that the virus was disseminated after it was passed out in the faeces of those who were previously immunized with the live oral polio vaccine.

Thankfully such cases are rare; however they serve as a big threat in areas where the health systems are fragile and rates of immunization, as well as coverage is low.

The case in Mali is the second of its kind in a one week period as two cases of vaccine derived Polio had earlier been reported in Ukraine.
These occurrences are setbacks in the global efforts to wipe out polio.

According to the WHO, Polio vaccination coverage in Guinea dropped from 63% to 42% in year 2014. The drop was attributed to the  Ebola outbreak which disrupted the services and routine of an already weak national health system.

In Mali however, the polio immunization coverage rose from 72-77% to 84 percent in 2014.

Both Mali and Guinea are working together to put an end to the outbreak in as little time as possible.

Polio affects children in areas with poor sanitation. It attacks the body's nervous system and in the span of a few hours of infection may lead to irreversible paralysis and it cannot be cured.

The disease is on it's way to being completely eradicated world wide.
This year cases of the wild Polio virus were only reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
However, Ukraine, Madagascar and Nigeria have recorded cases of vaccine-derived Polio.

A switch from the oral polio vaccines (OPV): (which contain strains of live viruses but have been observed to be highly effective, low priced and easily administered even by untrained personnel) to the "inactivated" vaccines (IPV), (which contain no live virus) may help prevent more cases of the vaccine derived polio experts have said.

The IPV however is expensive, not easy to administer and has to be administered by trained health workers in clinics.

It is not an easy task for developing nations to make this switch.

What are the lessons from this occurence, one would ask?

A previous post by PHNAfrica highlighted the risks posed by low rates of under five vaccination in Ebola affected regions and the implications for West Africa:

Gaps in immunization put many more children at risk.
It only takes one case of Polio crossing the border to start a polio epidemic in a neighboring country. The same can be said of measles, whooping cough and other vaccine preventable diseases.

Several borders have reopened and travelers, traders and visitors are crossing the borders at will on daily basis, although border security is still said to be tight in the Ebola affected nations. This implies that at any point in time a child incubating or actively ill with any of these diseases  may cross the border into another territory thereby putting the children in that region at risk.

If adequate care is not taken, some regions in West Africa may be plunged into epidemics that the health systems currently in operation in those communities are not equipped to handle, which could further worsen the state of things in the region. 

Hence, we call on all stake holders to continue to do all that they can to Step up under five immunization in West Africa and especially in the Ebola affected regions.

Review: How can we reduce the global stillbirth rate? By Karen Hofman

The article begins with the significant attention being showered on Maternal and child deaths in a bid to meet the Millennium Development Goals by the end of 2015, while "Stillbirth targets were omitted from the MDGs and remain absent from the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals," the writer stated.

Stillbirth : according to the American National Stillbirth Society, is defined as the intrauterine death and subsequent delivery of a developing infant that occurs beyond 20 completed weeks of gestation.

The article however describes still births as the death of babies either during pregnancy or during delivery. Deaths earlier than 28 weeks were categorized as miscarriages.

This is in tune with the WHO definition.

Statistics:

A significant 98% of the occurrence takes place in low- and middle-income countries.

A ranking of stillbirths in 193 countries by the Lancet medical journal, placed South Africa in the 148th position, India at 154th and Nigeria at 192nd. 

Hence, the launch of the Every Newborn action plan in 2014 by the WHO, with a global target to reduce stillbirth rates to ten for every 1000 births by 2035.

In South Africa, the rate is currently 18 still births per 1000 births. However, South Africa hopes to achieve the WHO target by 2016.

The article highlighted the following risk factors :

- Maternal age greater than 34

- Conditions such as :

*High blood pressure

*Diabetes

*Obesity

-Maternal bleeding

-Insufficient oxygen to the baby.

Various efforts and strategies at different levels have been implemented in South Africa to curb this menace.

Some of the strategies implemented include:

- detecting and treating HIV earlier in pregnant women

- managing hypertension and diabetes better

- improving both essential and emergency obstetric care during labor and delivery

- advocating good nutrition well before pregnancy so as to prevent obesity

According to the article, of all the interventions; improved labor and delivery management would have the highest impact and could potentially avert 60% of the stillbirths.

Scaling up these interventions could prevent an additional 5400 stillbirths annually while also preventing the deaths of additional 1300 mothers and 4900 newborns, resulting in a triple return on investment.

The resultant effect will be a drop by 30% of South Africa’s stillbirth rate, thus enabling the Nation to meet the World Health Organization's interim goal for 2030.

The interventions were also found to be affordable and would amount to little more than 0.5% of the total health budget.

Other highlighted areas of improvement include:

- Improvements in the quality of care :

By eliminating delays in accessing services,

ensuring cleanliness, infection prevention, reduced waiting times, drug availability and improved staff attitudes.

- Increased community awareness to enable families recognize danger signs and seek care promptly.

- More research to understand the causes of stillbirths before labor.

- The elimination of "under-reporting" of cases.

In conclusion the article alluded to the fact that although some of the causes are unknown, many of the deaths are preventable. 

According to the Lancet better clinical care, monitoring and interventions could halve stillbirths in poorer countries by 2020.

In my opinion, given the huge global burden of this issue with about 2.6 million deaths annually and majorly in sub Saharan Africa more attention needs to be focused on looking into the causes and possible applicable interventions.   

This is a shout out to the International community to prioritize issues pertaining to still births in the post 2015 era as the World transitions from the MDGs to the SDGs.

Africa's Long Journey to Eradicate Polio : Hope Rising ....

The journey to a polio free world began in 1988. At the time 125 countries reported 350,000 cases of the disease.

Over the years; the Americas, Europe and South-Eastern Asia were declared polio-free with the latest being India and 10 other countries in the South East Asian region declared polio free in March 2014 which was after they had gone 3 years without any case of polio detected within the region.

In year 2013, Nigeria; the then polio hub in Africa still saw 416 cases of the disease. This was at the time a huge progress towards polio eradication within Africa and globally.

On the 24th of July 2014, Nigeria for the first time since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began about 27 years ago, did not record any case of the wild polio virus in a one year period.

This victory is still however being celebrated cautiously as data verification to ascertain this is in process. Moreover the country still needs to go two more years without any case of polio before she can be declared polio free indeed.

In Africa as a whole, August 11 2015 marked a whole year without a single case of the wild polio virus recorded within the continent. The last case within the continent was recorded in Somalia on the 11th of August 2014.

With Polio being a dreaded debilitating disease governments, non governmental organizations, security forces and every group involved in the fight is being called upon to watch out for any form of slackness or apathy at this precarious point in this ongoing battle.

The security crisis in Northern Nigeria is a source of serious concern as this has caused several set backs and lulls in the progress made over the years.
Children in hard to reach and conflict volatile areas have had to go unvaccinated for these reasons and more; one of which is also lack of cooperation and trust between the parents or caregivers and the government.


In February of year 2013, nine polio vaccinators were shot and killed at health centers in Northern Nigeria.

With records of attacks against vaccinators in this region it is difficult to assume that every child in these conflict zones and hard to reach regions is vaccinated against polio.

The concern is that these unvaccinated children may create a set back in the already made progress.
In some of the said areas, currently the herd immunity is said to be about 75%. This is not the goal, however at this point we can safely say that we are close. 
According to Dr Tunji Funsho who is the Chairman of the Nigeria National Polio Plus Committee for Rotary International; " .... This gives us some level of comfort that majority of the children are covered so the danger of non-immunized children being infected with polio virus is not there,"

Furthermore, Dr Hamid Jafari, of the WHO Polio Eradication Initiative has said that :

"The focus remains on continuing to vaccinate children, no matter where they live, and to strengthen surveillance everywhere."

It is our hope that Nigeria and the rest of Africa will maintain this feat so that the global goal for a Polio free world can be realized in full.

Trade Unions can make Breastfeeding compatible with Work

Lawmakers can make Breastfeeding compatible with work.

Research by Philips Africa Reveals the Causes of Low Rates of Breastfeeding in Urban Africa

Philips Africa has unveiled the results of its latest research focused on supporting new mums in their breastfeeding journey, to mark World Breastfeeding Week ( 1-7 August 2015). 

Recent research in Africa, has found that under five children who are breastfed have a 14 times greater chance of survival, and any increase in intensity or duration of breastfeeding can help.

About 106,000 and 62,000 children died in Kenya and Ghana respectively from predominantly pneumonia and diarrhea in year 2013.

Breastfed babies have been said to be 15 times less likely to die from pneumonia and 11 times less likely to die from diarrhea.

In a bid to support the UN’s Every Woman Every Child initiative, Philips and Dr. Monk carried out a research in October 2014 to uncover the barriers to breastfeeding that urban working mothers in Accra Ghana and Nairobi Kenya face. 

This research involved 400+ working mothers with children under two years of age, through personal interviews, focus groups and surveys. 
The mothers chosen represented three distinct socio-economic groups: 
-Base of the Pyramid
-Floating Class 
-and the Middle Class.

Research findings revealed a deeply felt responsibility toward the health of the baby, tempered with the realities of urban African life.

Findings also showed that 52% of the mothers surveyed know that breastfeeding is the right thing to do, yet find it difficult to balance work and motherhood in busy African cities. These women have to return to work within three months of delivery, hence making breastfeeding difficult and complicated.

Also contributing to the low breastfeeding rates in urban Africa settings is the pressure of having to work many hours so as to make ends meet, coupled with the stress of day to day life, as well as the lack of space to express milk in the workplace.

Furthermore, even though 69% of the women surveyed are aware of the importance of expressing breast milk when unable to breastfeed directly, the main stumbling blocks to attaining this included 

lack of space to express comfortably, 

lack of access to technology like breast pumps, cooling and sterilization equipment and advice and coaching on the correct techniques to breastfeed while enabling comfort and ease for both infant and mother.

Summarily barriers to breastfeeding are social, economic, cultural and political and opportunities to lower these barriers are expected from joint efforts by industry, government, and civil society.

In the words of Dr. Maarten van Herpen, Head of the Philips Africa Innovation Hub:

“No mother should need to choose between earning a living, and giving their child the health benefits that only breastfeeding can provide,”  

“At Philips, we have started to develop several innovative ideas that were inspired by the findings in this report. Hopefully, these innovations will prove effective to address some of the challenges to breastfeeding faced by mothers.”

Co-Workers can make Breastfeeding compatible with work

What You and I Should know about Breastfeeding

What Every Family and Community should know about Breast feeding:

• Breastmilk alone is the best food and drink for an infant for the first six months of life. No other food or drink, not even water, is usually needed during this period.

• Newborn babies should be given to the mother to hold immediately after delivery. They should have skin-to-skin contact with the mother and begin breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
• Almost every mother can breastfeed successfully. Breastfeeding the baby frequently causes production of more milk. The baby should breastfeed at least eight times daily, day and night, and on demand.
• Breastfeeding helps protect babies and young children against dangerous illnesses. It also creates a special bond between mother and child.
• Bottle feeding and giving a baby breastmilk substitutes such as infant formula or animal milk can threaten the baby's health and survival. If a woman cannot breastfeed her infant, the baby can be fed expressed breastmilk or, if necessary, a quality breastmilk substitute from an ordinary clean cup.
• If a woman is infected with HIV, there is a risk that she can pass the infection to her infant through breastfeeding. In the first six months, this risk is much greater if the infant is fed both breastmilk and other liquids and foods than if fed breastmilk alone. Therefore, it is recommended that the baby receives breastmilk alone for the first six months, unless it is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe to give breastmilk substitutes (infant formula) exclusively.
• A woman employed away from her home can continue to breastfeed her child. She should breastfeed as often as possible when she is with the infant and express her breastmilk when they are apart so that another caregiver can feed it to the baby in a clean and safe way.
• After 6 months of age, when babies begin to eat foods, breastfeeding should continue for up to two years and beyond because it is an important source of nutrition, energy and protection from illness.

Best for baby
Reduces incidence of allergies
Economical - no waste
Antibodies - greater immunity to infections
Stool inoffensive - never constipated
Temperature always correct and constant
Fresh milk - never goes sour in the breast
Emotionally bonding
Easy once established
Digested easily within two to three hours
Immediately available
Nutritionally balanced
Gastroenteritis greatly reduced

From a publicity leaflet by the TIBS support group, Trinidad.

Source:Ten Facts on Breastfeeding - UNICEF/WHO Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) - The Mother and Child Health and Education Trust

Employers can make Breastfeeding compatible with work

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative

In commemoration of the 2015 World Breastfeeding Week we will be focusing on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI ) of 1991.

This initiative was launched by UNICEF and the WHO to ascertain that maternity 
centers everywhere; 
hospital owned as well as free standing become effective centers of breastfeeding support.

This process is currently under the control of national breastfeeding authorities that utilize global criteria which can be applied to maternity care in every country. 

UNICEF and WHO developed the implementation guides for the BFHI.

What are baby friendly maternity centers like?

They do not accept breast milk substitutes (free or low cost), feeding bottles, teats or pacifiers.
They have also implemented the 10 specific steps to support successful breastfeeding.

Ten steps to successful breastfeeding

- Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.

- Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.

- Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

- Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one half-hour of birth.

- Show mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation,even if they should be separated from their infants.

- Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.

- Practice rooming in - that is, allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.

- Encourage breastfeeding on demand.

- Give no artificial teats or pacifiers (also called dummies or soothers) to breastfeeding infants.

- Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.

Since inception, over 15,000 facilities in 134 countries have been awarded the Baby-Friendly status. More mothers in these regions are breastfeeding their babies and this has led to significant improvements in child health.

The Emergence of the First Malaria Vaccine in History ....

A malaria vaccine, the first of its kind in history to be licensed for use in humans has been recommended for use in babies who are at risk of malaria in Africa.
It was designated as safe and effective by the European regulators last week.

Mosquirix or RTS,S was designed by GlaxoSmithKline(British) and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative and was partly funded by the Bill and Melinda gates foundation.

The vaccine however awaits a WHO assessment to determine when and where it could be used. The WHO aims to make a recommendation later this year.
The approval of African leaders and governments also needs to be sought as the vaccine offers only partial protection.

It's use alongside other protective measures such as insecticide treated bed nets and other insecticides can go a long way in curbing the malaria scourge in sub Saharan Africa.

Malaria continues to claim the life of one child every minute. Infecting around 200 million people a year. It killed "an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, most of them being under 5 children in sub Saharan Africa.

Global health experts have long anticipated the development of an effective and efficient malaria vaccine by scientists, and RTS,S/mosquirix is the result of 30years of work by the researchers at GSK.

Is this shot the final answer to wiping out malaria?

Not exactly, as trial data released in 2011 and 2012 showed it only reduced episodes of malaria in babies aged 6-12 weeks by 27 percent, and by around 46 percent in children aged 5-17 months.
European Medicines Agency has recommended that the shot should still be licensed for use in babies in the full age range covered in the trials - from 6 weeks to 17 months.

Some malaria specialists have expressed concern that the complexities and potential costs of deploying this first vaccine when it only provides partial protection make it less attractive and more risky.

Joe Cohen, a scientist at GSK who has led the development of Mosquirix since 1987, has said that he has no doubt the vaccine could significantly reduce the toll of sickness and death caused by malaria among African children.

"I have absolutely no reservations in terms of rolling this vaccine out," he told Reuters.