The Economic and Social Council (CES) reflected on Friday on the introduction of the vaccine and genetically modified mosquitoes in Burkina Faso, as part of the fight against malaria.
“Burkina Faso becomes the third African country (after Ghana and Nigeria) and the first French-speaking country to approve the use of this vaccine, the research of which was carried out mainly in Burkina Faso,” informed the president of the Economic and Economic Council. social (CES), Bonaventure Ouédraogo.
The president of the CES spoke on Friday at a conference on the theme “Contribution of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine and the genetically modified mosquito in the fight against malaria in Burkina Faso”.
Mr. Ouédraogo informed that the health authorities of Burkina Faso, through the national pharmaceutical regulatory agency, granted on June 20, 2023, authorization for the importation, sale and use of the R21/matrix-M vaccine. on the national territory.
For him, “Burkinabe researchers have contributed to achieving an objective of the global malaria program which was the development of a vaccine against malaria with an effectiveness of 75% before the year 2030”.
“They did it and we should all be proud of it,” he said.
He also added that in Burkina Faso, malaria remains the leading cause of consultations, hospitalization and mortality, much more than all infectious diseases combined.
According to him, during the year 2022 and according to the global malaria control program, 11 million 655 thousand 675 cases of malaria were recorded including 4,243 deaths.
Bonaventure Ouédraogo specified that 60% of these deaths would concern children under five (05) years old.
Mr. Ouédraogo concluded by saying that it was following findings which showed, among other things, that malaria also constitutes an economic burden and a weight for the health system and households that Burkina Faso resolutely committed itself to a gigantic research work on malaria.
The conference also focused on the introduction of genetically modified mosquitoes in the fight against malaria.
“Of the 10,000 priority diseases recorded, it is really malaria which is a public health problem, it is an endemic disease which has been around for a long time,” confided the interim director of the Institute of research in health sciences (IRSS), Félix Kini.
He clarified that when we talk about genetics there is an apprehension among ordinary people and that it is through the communications that will be given by specialists that they will be edified.
As a reminder, the Economic and Social Council holds public conferences each year on different subjects.
Source: Burkina Information Agency