---
title: "The World’s First Malaria Vaccine Is Finally Ready for Rollout"
description: "At long last, the World Health Organization has decided that the world’s first malaria vaccine is ready for widespread use. Doctors and researchers have been trying and failing to develop a vaccine for malaria — one of the deadliest diseases in human history — for over a century, The BBC reports. Finally having one that’s […]"
date: "2021-10-07"
modified: "2021-10-07"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/worlds-first-malaria-vaccine-rollout"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "RX and Medicine"
tags:
  - "malaria vaccine"
  - "medicine"
---

# The World’s First Malaria Vaccine Is Finally Ready for Rollout

![The World Health Organization says that the world's first malaria vaccine is finally ready for widespread use, and that it could save countless children.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/who-worlds-first-malaria-vaccine-finally-ready.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty Images\</em\>*

At long last, the World Health Organization has declared that the world's first malaria vaccine is ready for widespread use.

Doctors and researchers have been [trying and failing](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-invented-highly-effective-malaria-vaccine>) to develop a vaccine for malaria — one of the deadliest diseases in human history — for over a century, *[the BBC ](<https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58810551>)*[reports](<https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58810551>). Finally having one that's safe and effective enough for use represents an astonishing achievement in medical research.

This news is a "historic moment" for medicine, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

"The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health, and malaria control," he said, according to the *BBC*. "\[It\] could save tens of thousands of young lives each year."

Malaria is a parasitic infection, commonly [spread by mosquitos](<https://futurism.com/furious-gene-hacked-mosquitoes>) and other pests, that destroys blood cells and is particularly deadly for children and infants. In 2019, it killed over 260,000 kids in Africa, according to the *BBC*. And without a vaccine, it takes several years' worth of infections for someone's immune system to build up any sort of protection.

"It is quite an exciting moment for us, with large scale vaccination I believe the malaria toll will be reduced to the barest minimum," Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, the doctor who ran a small vaccine pilot in Ghana, said at the news conference.

There are over 100 kinds of malaria, but the new vaccine specifically targets the deadliest of them — which also happens to be the most common in Africa, according to the *BBC*. [Smaller pilot trials](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/worlds-first-malaria-vaccine-will-be-given-to-thousands-of-babies-in-africa>) like the one in Ghana showed that the vaccine prevented 40 percent of malaria cases and 30 percent of severe cases.

"From a scientific perspective, this is a massive breakthrough, from a public health perspective this is a historical feat," WHO Global Malaria Program director Pedro Alonso said at the conference.

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)