Assessment of The Acceptance of The RTS, S/AS01 Malaria Vaccine By Parents of Children Under Five Years of age in the Foumbot and Foumban Health Districts in Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction: Malaria remains the main cause of consultations in health facilities in Cameroon.On January 22, 2024, the Health Districts of Foumbot and Foumban in the West Region of Cameroon began the pilot administration of the malaria vaccine for children under 5 years of age at the age of 6 months.Five months after the launch of this strategy, the 2 health districts involved recorded very low vaccination coverage in AMV1 (17.4%),AMV2 (6.6%) and AMV3 (5.3%).Therefore, assessing the acceptance of the RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccine by parents of children under five years of age in the Foumbot and Foumban health districts is important.Methodology: This descriptive, cross-sectional, analytical, community-based study was conducted among households in the Foumbot and Foumban health districts in the West Region of Cameroon.Data collection was performed via a semi open questionnaire administered to parents/guardians of children under 5 years of age who were eligible for malaria vaccination to assess their level of knowledge about malaria and their degree of acceptance of having their children vaccinated.The data collected were encoded and processed via Excel 2016 software and then analyzed via R software via the R-cmdr interface, with a statistical significance set at 0.05.Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the factors influencing the acceptance of the malaria vaccination for their children.