A malaria vaccine will be available to children across sub-Saharan Africa for the first time ever in what the head of the World Health Organization described as a “breakthrough for science” that could save thousands of lives every year.

In a pilot programme run in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi the vaccine, known as RTS,S and developed by UK pharmaceutical giant GSK, cut hospitalisations for severe malaria by 30 per cent.

RTS,S is the first and only vaccine to have shown such promising results but because it has to be given in three doses administered a month apart, with a fourth dose a year later, the WHO wanted to see how it performed in a “real-world” setting before giving it the go ahead.

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the approval was a “historic moment”.

Read the full story here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/historic-moment-first-ever-malaria-vaccine-approved-use-across/

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