WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - World Health Organization's World malaria report says the growing threat of antimalarial drug resistance is standing in the way of achieving malaria elimination.
Each year, WHO's World malaria report provides a comprehensive assessment of trends in malaria control and elimination across the globe. The 2024 edition reviews investments in malaria programs and research and assesses progress across all major intervention areas - prevention, diagnosis, treatment, elimination and surveillance - in 80 malaria-endemic countries.
This year's report spotlights the growing threat of antimalarial drug resistance. Partial resistance to artemisinin derivatives - the backbone of malaria treatments after failures of chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine - has now been confirmed or suspected in at least 8 countries in Africa, and there are potential signs of declining efficacy of some of the drugs that are combined with artemisinin.
Wider use of new tools against malaria, including dual-ingredient nets and WHO-recommended vaccines helped to prevent an estimated 170 million cases and 1 million deaths in 2024, according to WHO's annual World malaria report.
WHO claimed progress in eliminating malaria. To date, a total of 47 countries and one territory have been certified malaria-free by WHO. Cape Verde and Egypt were certified malaria-free in 2024, and Georgia, Suriname, and Timor-Leste joined them in 2025. Despite this significant progress, there were an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 deaths in 2024 - roughly 9 million more cases than the previous year.
An estimated 95 percent of these deaths were recorded in the African Region, with most occurring among children under 5. The report shows that antimalarial drug resistance is growing and stands in the way of achieving malaria elimination.
Progress in reducing the malaria deaths - a key target of the Global technical strategy for malaria 2016-2030 - remains far off track, WHO says. In 2024, there were 610000 deaths caused by the mosquito-borne parasitic disease. This corresponds to 13.8 malaria deaths per 100,000 population, which is more than three times the global target of reducing mortality to 4.5 deaths per 100,000.*
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