"Mozambique will introduce the malaria vaccine this year. It will start on a small scale, in one province, and then next year we will move to the remaining provinces," Baltazar Candrinho assured Lusa, anticipating the world day of the fight against the disease, which is celebrated annually on April 25. The official added that the R21/Matrix-M will be used, the second malaria vaccine for children, developed by the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, and approved in October last year by the World Health Organization (WHO). Baltazar Candrinho said that the vaccine will be introduced in the second half of the year, vaccinating children under 5, in a province to be announced later, a process that will be extended "next year" to others. Adding that the training of human resources for the application of the vaccine is currently underway, as well as the creation of material conditions for its conservation in health units. The director of the National Malaria Control Program added that it is the goal of the Government of Mozambique to start vaccination throughout the country in 2025, at a time when "there will be greater availability of the vaccine on the market". "There is not enough vaccine production for all countries. So a distribution was made still in small [quantity] and on a small scale. But the guarantee is that next year we will expand. The quantity that we manage to have this year will cover one province and we will choose the one with the highest malaria burden," explained Baltazar Candrinho. The vaccine to be used in Mozambique is the second recommended by the WHO, after the RTS,S/AS01 in 2021, following the advice of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG). According to the WHO, both vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when widely implemented, are expected to have a major public health impact. "The demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds the supply, so this second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children more quickly and to move us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future," said WHO Director-General Tendros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in October last year. The R21/Matrix-M vaccine was approved by SAGE, after its regular bi-annual meeting held between September 25 and 29 last year. "This second vaccine has real potential to close the huge gap between demand and supply," said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti in October last year, adding that the two vaccines could help "save hundreds of thousands of young lives" in the African continent. In Africa, according to the WHO, nearly half a million children die each year from malaria. The WHO hopes that the new vaccine will benefit all children living in areas where the disease is a public health risk. "In areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission (largely confined to four or five months of the year), the R21 vaccine has been shown to reduce symptomatic cases by 75% in the 12 months following a three-dose series," when given just before the season, the agency said. "Mathematical modeling estimates indicate that the public health impact of the R21 vaccine is likely to be high across a wide range of malaria transmission settings, including low transmission settings," said Matshidiso Moeti, adding that it costs between two and four dollars per dose. At least 28 countries in Africa plan to introduce a WHO-recommended malaria vaccine as part of their national immunization programs. Read Also: President of Mozambique begins a four-day visit to Portugal today (Portuguese version)