Malaria vaccine ‘changes the course of public health history’, says WHO chief

The World Health Organization has endorsed the first-ever malaria vaccine.

Children across much of Africa are to be vaccinated against the disease, in what is seen as a historic moment and a "game-changer" in the battle against one of the leading causes of childhood deaths.

"The RTS,S malaria vaccine, more than 30 years in the making, changes the course of public health history," Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said.

Researchers have also called the jab a "historic breakthrough".