The new malaria vaccine will be rolled out in eight counties across the country. 

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According to Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki who is launching the new vaccine for the first time in Kenya, Friday at Homa Bay County, the vaccine will be rolled out in Homa Bay,  Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Busia, Bungoma, Vihiga and Kakamega counties.

The ministry of health noted that the vaccine will be an addition to several other immunization schedules among children in the country. 

It will be administered to children of ages 6, 7, 9 and those of 24 months. 

The planned schedule will see over 300,000 children receiving the malaria vaccine in the next three years time. 

“To get proper protection, a child must get all the four vaccine doses and continue sleeping under a mosquito net every night,” the ministry said as quoted by Citizen Digital.

So far, only Ghana and Malawi have launched the vaccine among African countries. Kenya will be the third one. 

Reuters indicates that almost 219 million people have been infected by malaria in the last two years. The disease claimed the lives of 435,000 people with most of them being children.