WHO recommends use of world’s first malaria vaccine for children

The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine, the first against the mosquito-borne disease that kills over 400,000 people a year, especially African children. The decision followed a review of a pilot programme deployed since 2019 in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi where more than two million doses were given of the vaccine, first made by the pharmaceutical company GSK in 1987. After reviewing evidence from those countries, WHO said it was “recommending the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine”, th