To get the reduction in malaria deaths and disease back on track, WHO and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria have catalyzed a new response to scale up prevention and treatment, and increase investment, for malaria control globally.

This country-led “High burden to high impact” approach will support nations with most malaria cases and deaths.
Reductions in malaria cases have stalled after several years of decline globally, according to the new World malaria report 2018.

A child dies of malaria every 2 minutes. 61 per cent of all malaria deaths globally in 2017 were among children under 5. No one should die from a disease that can be easily prevented and diagnosed, and that is entirely curable with available treatments.

To get the reduction in malaria deaths and disease back on track, WHO and partners are joining a new country-led response, launched on Sunday, to scale up prevention and treatment, and increased investment, to protect vulnerable people from the deadly disease.

For the second consecutive year, the annual report produced by WHO reveals a plateauing in numbers of people affected by malaria: in 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria, compared to 217 million the year before. But in the years prior, the number of people contracting malaria globally had been steadily falling, from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015.

“Nobody should die from malaria. But the world faces a new reality: as progress stagnates, we are at risk of squandering years of toil, investment and success in reducing the number of people suffering from the disease,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We recognise we have to do something different – now. So we are launching a country-focused and -led plan to take comprehensive action against malaria by making our work more effective where it counts most – at local level.”

In 2017, approximately 70 per cent of all malaria cases (151 million) and deaths (274 000) were concentrated in 11 countries: 10 in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania) and India.