Epidemiologist defends that Angola buys malaria vaccines on its own

Angolan epidemiologist Jeremias Agostinho this Friday said it was important for Angola to acquire a malaria vaccine, advising the government to make an effort to obtain it on its own “because many Angolans are dying.”

Angola is the fifth country [em África] with more cases and more deaths, between 7,000 and 13,000 people die from malaria each year. [que] over the past 20 years, it has been the leading cause of death,” said Jeremias Agostinho Luce, reacting to the fact that Angola is not included in the list of 12 African countries that will now receive a malaria vaccine.

As announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Vaccine Alliance and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

For Jeremias Agostinho, the malaria figures in Angola show “how important” a vaccine is for the Portuguese-speaking country, which he considered a “priority”.

“We should have had this vaccine to help our citizens. If it doesn’t pass that way, the country will have to make more efforts to get it in other ways, with its own means, to see if it can buy it, because a lot of Angolans are dying of malaria,” he said.

The doctor warned that the presence of a vaccine does not mean the elimination of the disease, because there are many risk factors in the country.

“The ponds and garbage are still there,” the epidemiologist stressed, stressing that Angola was one of 30 countries that expressed their intention to gain access to the vaccine, of which 12 were selected, without specifying “what is the weakness of each of the countries.” who were not selected.

“They just say that there are 12 countries that have received the highest score in the analysis of these aspects, the rest will be left for later if there are more vaccines,” Jeremias Agostinho emphasized, stressing that the choice of countries was made by the WHO technical committee. “So there was no way for countries to ‘lobby’ or interfere with the established selection criteria.

Jeremias Agostinho added that among the selection aspects were the number of cases and deaths in countries, the impact that the vaccine will have on reducing mortality, equity in the distribution of vaccines, the countries participating in the trials and experience with the vaccine and the risk that vaccines will be wasted due to unacceptability by the population, the organization of the country’s own healthcare system and the sustainability of access to vaccines.

Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have significantly increased the use of the malaria vaccine in a pilot program that has reached more than 1.7 million children in the three countries and has proven safe and effective.

In addition to Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda will introduce the vaccine into their immunization programmes.

Malaria is the leading cause of death, hospitalizations and absenteeism from work and school in Angola.

In 2022, according to the Ministry of Health, the Portuguese-speaking country recorded 9.2 million cases, up 0.4% from 2021, due to the covid-19 pandemic, which “made it impossible to diagnose and treat malaria”, Noting just last year there was a 10% reduction in deaths from endemic diseases in the country.

Lusa has contacted the Angolan Ministry of Health for further clarification on the matter, but so far without success.