(Reuters) – An official from the World Health Organization’s Africa office, Phionah Atuhebwe, said on Thursday that Ghana and Nigeria had not “jumped the gun” in approving Oxford University’s R21 malaria vaccine before clinical trials are complete.
The two countries’ provisional approval of the vaccine this month is unusual as the WHO is still assessing its safety and effectiveness.
The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 600,000 people each year, most of them children in Africa.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alexander Winning)
