Malaria has long been recognized as a public health problem. At the community level, vector control, and antimalarial medicines are the main means for reducing incidence, morbidity, and mortality of malaria. A vaccine not only would bring streamlining in the prevention of morbidity and mortality from malaria but also would be more accessible if integrated with Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI). Globally, an estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria. Most cases (80%) and deaths (90%) occurred in Africa, and most deaths (77%) are in children under 5 years of age.
An effective vaccine has long been envisaged as a valuable addition to the available tools for malaria control. Although research toward the development of malaria vaccines has been pursued since the 1960s, there are no licensed malaria vaccines. The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which tar-gets P. falciparum, has reached…
