As Ghana becomes the first country in Africa and globally to approve the University of Oxford’s new malaria vaccine for young children, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) commends Ghana for its decision and urges the World Health Organization (WHO) to approve the vaccine quickly if current late-stage trials are successful.

“This is a big leap in preventing unnecessary deaths amongst children under five in Africa,” said AHF Africa Bureau Chief Dr. Penninah Iutung. “Malaria is still amongst the top five leading causes of death in African children under five years of age – accounting for more than an estimated 475,000 deaths in 2021 alone – 80% of Africa’s deaths caused by malaria that year. We applaud Ghana for taking the lead in approving this new promising vaccine, encourage other African countries to follow suit, and urge the WHO to expedite the approval process of this vaccine upon the successful culmination of late-stage testing later this year.”

AHF launched the Vaccinate Our World campaign during COVID-19 to help ensure all countries have equitable access to lifesaving vaccines and other health commodities during the pandemic. VOW has since expanded to include advocacy for access to all vaccines. We are calling on pharmaceutical companies to share intellectual property, technology, and know-how, to increase production and access to medicines, diagnostics, and therapeutics—particularly during international health crises. Learn more at VaccinateOurWorld.org.

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

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