Nigeria has begun implementing a malaria vaccination programme in an effort to ease the world’s highest burden of the mosquito-borne disease which last year killed some 200,000 people.
The vaccination schedule targets young children, with the first dose administered at five months.
One of the first areas where the programme is being rolled out is the southern state of Bayelsa, which has one of the country’s highest rates of malaria.
Rebecca Godspower brought her six-month-old baby to a clinic for the vaccination after having twice treated him for malaria.
“Now that there’s a vaccine for malaria, at least I’m happy, I am glad that stress won’t be there again,” she said.
A view echoed by another mother, Esther Michael, who also visited the clinic.
“I’m happy to bring my child to the health centre to take a vaccine because we hear that malaria is killing other children.”