WHO Reports an Increase on Malaria Cases Despite Efforts to Reduce Contraction of the Disease

Despite the efforts being put in place in the fight against Malaria across the globe, the annual World Malaria Report 2018 by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals an increase in numbers of affected people for the second consecutive year.

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.

The report states that reductions in malaria cases have stalled after several years of decline globally.

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

“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.

In 2017, approximately 70 percent 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. There were 3.5 million more malaria cases reported in these 10 African countries in 2017 compared to the previous year, while India, showed progress in reducing its disease burden.

Despite marginal increases in recent years in the distribution and use of insecticide-treated bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa, the report highlights major coverage gaps.

In 2017, an estimated half of at-risk people in Africa did not sleep under a treated net. Also, fewer homes are being protected by indoor residual spraying than before, and access to preventive therapies that protect pregnant women and children from malaria remains too low.

Targets set by the WHO Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 to reduce malaria case incidence and death rates by at least 40 percent by 2020 are not on track to being met.

As reductions in malaria cases and deaths slow, funding for the global response has also shown a leveling off, with US$ 3.1 billion made available for control and elimination programmes in 2017 including US$ 900 million (28 percent) from governments of malaria-endemic countries.  The United States of America remains the largest single international donor, contributing US$ 1.2 billion (39 percent) in 2017.

To meet the 2030 targets of the global malaria strategy, malaria investments should reach at least US$6.6 billion annually by 2020, more than double the amount available today.