An experimental vaccine against malaria may prove to be a powerful weapon in the fight against one of the world’s biggest killers. Malaria is killing almost 1 million people, mostly African children, and sickens about 2 million others every year, according to estimates from the World Health Organization. Most of the deaths are among children younger than 5 in sub-Saharan Africa, the population that the vaccine targets.

A new study published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that a new malaria vaccine is effective at preventing both infection and the mosquito-born disease itself in infants and children. The study involved 340 Tanzanian infants under 1 year old. They received the RTS,S/ASO2 vaccine along with other vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and heamophilus influenzae B. At the end of the study, the researchers found a 65 percent reduction in first infection from malaria in those infants who received three doses of the vaccine. The participants were followed over a six-month period. The researchers found RTS,S/ASO2 could be safely and effectively given along with other childhood vaccines.

In a second study, 894 children in Kenya and Tanzania, ages 5 to 17 months, were given either three doses of the malaria vaccine or a rabies vaccine. There was a 53 percent reduction in the risk of developing malaria among children who received the RTS,S vaccine, the researchers noted.

The researchers say that Phase III trials of the vaccine are set to begin early next year. Infectious disease experts agree that there is an urgent need for a malaria vaccine.