Learn more about RTS,S and the people working toward a vaccine to combat malaria.<br />Photo credit: PATH/Jordan Gantz

The first vaccine recommended for use by the World Health Organization to prevent malaria in children.

RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) is the world's first malaria vaccine and the first approved vaccine to combat a human parasitic disease. This pediatric vaccine acts against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite globally, and the most prevalent in Africa. The vaccine reduces the number of times a child gets malaria, including severe, life-threatening malaria, and it reduces child deaths.

RTS,S is, to date, the only malaria vaccine to be recommended and prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO recommends that the vaccine be used as an additional tool for the prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children living in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission. PATH has been involved in the development and introduction of the RTS,S vaccine since 2001.