The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the usage of the world’s first-ever malaria vaccine for mass administration to children at risk.

According to a statement by WHO, the vaccine called RTS,S/AS01 or Mosquirix, has been approved after 30 years in development.

The report said the vaccine primes the human immune system against the most common Malaria parasite in Africa, and the deadliest known, named as Plasmodium falciparum.

It could prevent thousands of deaths

Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa with over 260,000 deaths recorded among African children under the age of five die annually, said the statement.

WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement said the vaccine used with other existing tools can prevent the disease and save thousands of young lives every year.

The vaccine reportedly, the first in the world for preventing a disease caused by a parasite, was developed by UK pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline.

Clinical trials on 800,000 children from Ghana, Kenya and Malawi proved that the vaccine could prevent four out of every 10 cases (in children who took four doses of it in four years.

The vaccine also was able to prevent severe Malaria in three out of ten people. In fact, RTS,S/AS01 shows a 30 per cent drop in severe Malaria cases.

Sounds very promising!