(Corrects to remove reference to need for European Commissionapproval)
* Vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline for babies in Africa
* WHO will now decide whether to recommend vaccine for use
* GSK scientist worked on the vaccine for almost 30 years
By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - The world's first malariavaccine got a green light on Friday from European drugsregulators who recommended it should be licensed for use inbabies in Africa at risk of the mosquito-borne disease.
The shot, called RTS,S or Mosquirix and developed by Britishdrugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH MalariaVaccine Initiative, would be the first licensed human vaccineagainst a parasitic disease and could help prevent millions ofcases of malaria in countries that use it.
Mosquirix, also part-funded by the Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation, will now be assessed by the World HealthOrganization, which has promised to give its guidance on whenand where it should be used before the end of this year.
Malaria killed an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, the vastmajority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 80 percent ofmalaria deaths are in children under the age of five.
Andrew Witty, GSK's chief executive, said the positiverecommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was afurther important step towards making the world's first malariavaccine available for young children.
"While RTS,S on its own is not the complete answer tomalaria, its use alongside those interventions currentlyavailable such as bed nets and insecticides would provide a verymeaningful contribution to controlling the impact of malaria onchildren in those African communities that need it the most," hesaid in a statement.
Global health experts have long hoped scientists would beable to develop an effective malaria vaccine, and researchers atGSK have been working on RTS,S for 30 years.
Hopes that this shot would be the final answer to wiping outmalaria were dampened when trial data released in 2011 and 2012showed it only reduced episodes of malaria in babies aged 6-12weeks by 27 percent, and by around 46 percent in children aged5-17 months.
EMA's recommendation is that the shot should nevertheless belicensed for use in babies in the full age range covered in thetrials -- from 6 weeks to 17 months.
Some malaria specialists have expressed concern that thecomplexities and potential costs of deploying this first vaccinewhen it only provides partial protection make it less attractiveand more risky.
However Joe Cohen, a GSK scientist who has led thedevelopment of Mosquirix since 1987, said on Friday he has nodoubt the vaccine could significantly reduce the toll ofsickness and death caused by the malaria among African children.
"I have absolutely no reservations in terms of rolling thisvaccine out," he told Reuters. "Why? Because the efficacy, whentranslated into cases averted and deaths averted, is justtremendous. It will have an enormously significant public healthimpact." (Editing by Alison Williams and David Stamp)