A malaria vaccine has proved to be 77% effective in early trials and could be a major breakthrough against the disease, says the University of Oxford team behind it.

Malaria kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.

But despite many vaccines being trialled over the years, this is the first to meet the required target. //

When trialled in 450 children in Burkina Faso, the vaccine was found to be safe, and showed "high-level efficacy" over 12 months of follow-up.

Larger trials in nearly 5,000 children between the ages of five months and three years will now be carried out across four African countries to confirm the findings. //

The trials of this malaria vaccine started in 2019, long before coronavirus appeared - and the Oxford team developed its Covid vaccine (with AstraZeneca) on the strength of its research into malaria, Prof Hill said.

A malaria vaccine has taken much longer to come to fruition because there are thousands of genes in malaria compared to around a dozen in coronavirus, and a very high immune response is needed to fight off the disease.