• The decision followed a review of a pilot programme deployed since 2019 in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in which more than two million doses were given of the vaccine, first made by the pharmaceutical company GSK in 1987.
  
• The WHO describes it as a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable.
  
• Studies show that the vaccine prepares the immune system to fight the malaria parasite the moment it's been injected into the blood by a mosquito bite. 
• The WHO said that side-effects were rare, but a fever that could result in temporary convulsions was one of them.

Malaria and India

• Malaria has a long history in India. In fact, it is still pretty much an epidemic in India.
• In 2019, India contributed two percent of the total global malaria cases.
• However, India has been carrying out steps to make it malaria-free and the nation hopes to see itself as malaria-free by 2030.
• As per a government report, India contributed the largest drop in cases region-wide, from 20 million to about six million.
• The percentage drop in the malaria cases was 71.8 percent and deaths was 73.9 percent between 2000 to 2019.