Cameroon Rolls Out World’s 1st Malaria Vaccine as Fear Outweighs Hesitancy

With six million malaria cases and 11,000 deaths recorded each year, Cameroon hopes to use vaccination campaigns to save lives and its health system.

People show how to put a mosquito net on a bed during a free insecticide-treated mosquito nets distribution on April 24, 2015 at the town hall in the Port-Bouet popular district of Abidjan. Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images

Drusylia Forku Fontie, 28, didn’t initially want her infant daughter, Amelia Neba, to take the world’s first World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended malaria vaccine because of widespread speculation about the vaccine’s safety.

However, the fear that her 6-month-old baby might contract malaria again—after already suffering two bouts of the often-deadly parasitic infection—caused her to change her mind overnight.