The world's first malaria vaccine is being rolled out in parts of Kenya from Friday (Sept 13).
It will be added to the routine vaccination schedule, and more than 300,000 children are expected to receive the vaccine over the next three years, reports the BBC.
Malaria kills more than 400,000 people globally each year, mostly children.
Earlier this week, global health experts said that the malaria, one of the world's oldest and deadliest diseases, can be eradicated by 2050, Reuters reported on Sunday (Sept 8) .
This contradicted the conclusions last month of a malaria review by the World Health Organization and the experts urged the WHO not to shy away from this "goal of epic proportions".
Malaria infected about 219 million people in 2017 and killed around 435,000 of them -- the vast majority babies and children in the poorest parts of Africa. Due to ongoing transmission, half the world's population is still at risk of contracting malaria, and globally, it kills a child every two minutes.
These figures are little changed from 2016, but global case numbers had previously fallen steadily from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015, and deaths from 607,000 to around 500,000 from 2010 to 2013.