First malaria vaccine helps decrease cases in young children

A health worker prepares a malaria vaccination for a child at Yala Sub-County Hospital in Kenya. This firstever malaria vaccine is approved for use in children between five months to five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world with moderate to high malaria transmission. — AFP

Lucy Akinyi’s three children were infected with malaria so often that she would be at their local health clinic in western Kenya every other week getting them treated.

When offered the chance to protect her children with the world’s first vaccine against the deadly parasitic disease, Akinyi jumped at the chance.