NAIROBI - In Kenya, trials began on the world’s first malaria vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday.

Welcoming the initiative, which follows a recent surge in malaria infections and deaths, the UN health agency said that the vaccine will “significantly reduce” the disease in children.

Today, malaria claims the life of a child every two minutes and it is a leading killer of under five-year-olds in Kenya.

The vaccine, known as RTS,S, will be available to children from six months of age in selected areas of the country.

As trials got under way in Homa Bay County in western Kenya on Friday, WHORegional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said that if introduced widely, the vaccine had the potential to save tens of thousands of lives.

Kenya is the third country to trial the vaccine, after Ghana and Malawi.