Malaria is still responsible for more than 627,000 deaths each year, predominantly among
children under 5 years old. Current reductions in deaths have stagnated, and we expect
additional setbacks for malaria control programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve
malaria elimination and eradication we must leverage concerted approaches to reduce clinical
disease and prevent new infections. The existing malaria controls tools including the RTS,S
(trade name Mosquirix), a malaria vaccine currently undergoing implementation studies and
endorsed by the World Health Organization on October 7, 2021, can reduce disease burden for
patients but cannot ultimately support malaria elimination and eradication since their effect
on malaria transmission is at most partial. Consequently, complementary interventions, such
as transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs) may prove to be a cost-effective intervention that
can reduce on-going residual transmission and the cascade of new infections.