"Our happiness lies in the fact that we have noticed a decrease in the number of inter-hospital deaths [caused by malaria, compared to 2022] in which we registered 423 deaths and in 2023 we registered 356, this is a reduction of 16%", said Armindo Tiago, Minister of Health of Mozambique, during a ceremony marking World Malaria Day, in Maputo. According to the Mozambican government official, the country registered an increase in the number of malaria cases in 2023, with around 13.2 million cases, compared to 2022 when 12.4 million patients were reported. Noting the introduction of the malaria vaccine in the country, Armindo Tiago pointed out climate change, inadequate sanitation conditions and lack of preventive measures as some of the elements that "determine the greatest impact of the disease" in Mozambique. "We hope that if all goes well in June we will be able to introduce the malaria vaccine in our country for the first time," said the Mozambican Minister of Health. Mozambique plans to introduce the new malaria vaccine in the second half of 2024, immunizing 600,000 children, said Baltazar Candrinho, director of the National Malaria Control Program, in an interview with Lusa this week. The official added that 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). The vaccine to be used in Mozambique is the second recommended by the WHO, after 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 impact on public health. At least 28 countries in Africa plan to introduce a malaria vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization as part of their national immunization programs. Read Also: Portuguese woman works on creating a protein to stop malaria (Portuguese version)