Malaria is a devastating parasitic disease transmitted through the bite of infected, female Anopheles mosquitoes. More than one-third of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria, which sickens hundreds of millions of people annually and kills hundreds of thousands each year, the vast majority of them among African children under the age of five.

Malaria accounts for approximately 10 percent of Africa’s entire disease burden, with severe economic consequences: countries with a high incidence of malaria can suffer a 1.3 percent loss of annual economic growth. However, we are now closer than ever to introduction of the first malaria vaccine, which would be another important tool in the fight against this disease.