The World Health Organization has approved the use of a more affordable and highly effective vaccine against malaria. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the recommendation Monday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “In areas with seasonal transmission, it reduced symptomatic cases of malaria by 75% in the 12 months following a three-dose series of the vaccine.”

The vaccine was developed by Oxford University and is only the second malaria vaccine to be recommended by the WHO. Malaria is among the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, and the mosquito that carries it has been described as the “world’s deadliest animal.” In 2021, over half a million people, largely children under the age of 5, died of malaria — the vast majority of them in Africa.