It has been said that the first ever malaria vaccine has been approved on Friday by European drugs regulators. The European drug regulators recommended that the drug should be licensed to be used on babies in Africa who are at high risk of the mosquito-borne disease.

The vaccine called RTS, S or Mosquirix has been developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. The vaccine is said to be the first ever licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease.

Drug makers said that it could efficiently help prevent millions of cases of malaria in countries that will use it. Recommendations for a drug license made by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

It is said that Mosquirix, which is also partly-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will also be assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO has promised to give its guidance on when and where it should be used before the end of this year.

As per official data, malaria has killed an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 80 % of malaria deaths are in children under the age of five.

Andrew Witty, GSK's chief executive, said, "RTS, S is not complete answer to malaria, its use alongside interventions currently available such as bed nets and insecticides would provide a very meaningful contribution to controlling impact of malaria on children in those African communities that need it most".

Global health experts since long have hoped scientists would be able to develop an effective malaria vaccine, and researchers at GSK have been working on RTS, S for 30 years.