Discussions beginning in 2012 ultimately led to a landmark document from the World Health Organization (WHO) titled, Control and Elimination of Plasmodium vivax: A Technical Brief, published in July 2015. That body of work represents multiple expert consultations coordinated by the WHO Global Malaria Program, along with technical consensus gathering from national malaria control programs via the WHO regional offices around the globe. That document thus represents thoroughly vetted state-of-the-art recommendations for dealing specifically with P. vivax, the first assembly of such by the WHO. This supplement to the journal was commissioned by the WHO and compiles the very substantial body of evidence and analysis informing those recommendations. This introductory narrative to the supplement provides the historical and technological context of global strategy for combatting P. vivax and reducing the burdens of morbidity and mortality it imposes.