Catherine Falade Quotes

RTS, S/AS01 is being assessed as a complementary malaria control tool that could potentially be added to and not replace the core package of proven malaria preventive, diagnostic and treatment measures.

RTS, S/AS01 is the most advanced vaccine against the most deadly form of human malaria –Plasmodium falciparum.

The vaccines only reduce the risks of malaria by 35 per cent; it does not prevent malaria like other vaccines that babies take at birth for prevention of communicable diseases.

They consume more health-care resources than patients infected with non-resistant strains of the same bacteria.

It is important for the populace to know that malaria has no particular signs and symptoms. The signs and symptoms you get in malaria are the same as what you will get in any infection like pneumonia, hepatitis, or some other viral infection. Even with a boil that is not in a very visible place, there could be a fever, headache, as well as aches and pains. It thus becomes important that malaria diagnosis is confirmed by laboratory diagnosis using malaria rapid diagnostic test or quality-assured microscopy.

Access to the right medicine will go a long way in assisting to stem the malaria scourge and drug manufacturers should also stick to the WHO recommended manufacturers standard.

In July 2015, the European Medicines Agency issued a positive scientific opinion on the vaccine’s risk-benefit balance.

As at July 2016, resistance to the first –line treatment for P. falciparum malaria(Artemisinin-based combination therapies also known as (ACTs), has been confirmed in five countries of the Greater Mekong sub –region. The Greater Mekong sub-region include Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

The poor masses are also affected due to ineffective and costly way of treatment, which cannot be afforded by the parents.

WHO has adopted these recommendations and is strongly supportive of the need to proceed with the pilots as the next step for the world’s first malaria vaccine.

They should be informed by healthcare givers, community centres, the media and all stakeholders that what the vaccine does is to reduce the attack of malaria and not to totally prevent it

A pharmaceutical error can wipe out a generation of people, so there is need for government to sanction producers of counterfeit malaria drugs.

In October 2015, two independent WHO advisory groups recommended the pilot implementation of RTS, S/ASO1 in parts of three to five sub-Saharan African countries.

They should be informed by healthcare givers, community centres, the media and all stakeholders that what the vaccine does is to reduce the attack of malaria and not to totally prevent it.

A lot of the adults say chloroquine works because they had never had malaria to start with. They were probably stressed or tired from too much work or a hectic lifestyle. So, instead of resting, they conclude that they have malaria and then go ahead to take chloroquine before retiring to bed. By the time they have slept for a day or two, they feel fine, and they assume that they had malaria that chloroquine cured.