The world's first malaria vaccine will be made available in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana starting in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, according to dpa. "The vaccine is now out of the experimental phase" and it has obtained a positive scientific opinion from the European Medicines Agency regulatory authority, said Mary Hamel, a coordinator for the vaccine implementation programme. The vaccine - known as RTS,S - was developed to protect young children from the deadliest form of malaria, caused by the mosquito-transmitted parasite Plasmodium falciparum. It will be tested in areas to be selected by the three countries, which were chosen because of their large-scale anti-malaria programmes, as well as their high numbers of cases. The vaccine will be administered to a total of 360,000 children, Hamel said in a telephone interview. They will receive three doses a month apart at the age of 5 months and a fourth dose when they are 2 years old.
