“The World Health Organization is recommending widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa,” the UN-backed health watchdog said in a press release on Wednesday.

“This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Combined with other anti-malarial medicines, it can also reportedly reduce the number of hospitalizations and deaths.

“Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year,” Tedros added.

Also known as Mosquirix, the jab was developed by a UK pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Over 800,000 children in African countries of Ghana, Kenya and Malawi were immunized with it as part of a pilot program that was launched in 2019.