Kenya has become the third country in Africa to roll out the world’s first malaria vaccine today, joining Malawi and Ghana in a two-year trial.

The vaccine, known as RTS,S, has been 30 years in the making and is hailed as a landmark vaccine against the disease.

Malaria kills one child globally every two minutes and is the leading killer of children in Kenya under the age of five. Worldwide the disease kills 435,000 people a year, most of them children.

The vaccine will be available to children from six months old in eight counties, and aims to reach approximately 120,000 children in Kenya per year. Around 360,000 children will receive the vaccine across Kenya, Malawi and Ghana.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, said: “Africa has witnessed a recent surge in the number of malaria cases and deaths. This threatens the gains in the fight against malaria made in the past two decades.

“The ongoing pilots will provide the key information and data to inform a WHO policy on the broader use of the vaccine in sub-Saharan Africa. If introduced widely, the vaccine has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives.”