World's First Malaria Vaccine has been Approved

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the widespread use of a malaria vaccine among children in Africa and other areas with a high prevalence of malaria. This is a great success in the long struggle against the deadly disease.

Malaria is a disease caused by parasites that has existed for thousands of years and is transmitted mainly through mosquito bites. It kills more than 400,000 people worldwide each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260,000 children under the age of 5 die each year from malaria.

The road to an effective malaria vaccine is a long one, with vaccines used so far showing modest efficacy, Live Science reported earlier.

The WHO-approved vaccine - called RTS, S or Mosquirix - has been in development for more than 30 years and works to boost the immune system against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite and the most common in Africa.

It is the first vaccine to conduct large-scale clinical trials and has shown that it can significantly reduce malaria, including life-threatening malaria, in young children in Africa, the WHO said.

It is also the first vaccine developed against any disease caused by a parasite, according to The New York Times.

"This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, children's health and malaria control," Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreesus, the WHO's director general, said in a statement on Wednesday (October 6th).
"Using this vaccine in addition to existing malaria prevention products can save tens of thousands of young lives each year."

In large-scale clinical trials, the vaccine, developed by the British health company GlaxoSmithKline, prevented about 4...