Malaria, a life-threatening disease usually caused when parasites from the Plasmodium family enter the bloodstream of a person bitten by a parasite-carrying mosquito, is a severe health threat globally, with 200 to 300 million cases annually and 445,000 deaths in 2016.

With pregnant women and children most vulnerable from infection, complications including anemia and cerebral malaria, the most severe neurological complication from malaria, are responsible for approximately 25% of the infant mortality rate in some regions of Africa.