Photos- WHO
By SAT News Desk
MELBOURNE, 30 November 2020: Globally, malaria deaths have reduced steadily over the period 2000–2019, from 736 000 in 2000 to 409 000 in 2019. The percentage of total malaria deaths among children aged under 5 years was 84% in 2000 and 67% in 2019. The global estimate of deaths in 2015, the GTS baseline, was about 453 000. This has been revealed in the just-released WHO World Malaria Report 2020.
Globally, there were an estimated 229 million malaria cases in 2019 in 87 malaria-endemic countries, declining from 238 million in 2000. At the Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 (GTS) baseline of 2015, there were 218 million estimated malaria cases, the report says.
The 2020 edition of the World Malaria Report takes a historical look at key milestones that helped shape the global response to the disease over the last 2 decades – a period of unprecedented success in malaria control. The report features a detailed analysis of progress towards the 2020 milestones of WHO’s global malaria strategy and a special section on malaria and the COVID-19 pandemic.
As in past years, the report provides an up-to-date assessment of the burden of malaria at global, regional, and country levels. It tracks investments in malaria programs and research as well as progress across all intervention areas. This latest report draws on data from 87 countries and territories with ongoing malaria transmission.
The report is based on information received from national malaria control programs and other partners in 87 malaria-endemic countries; most of the data presented is from 2019.
Twenty-nine countries accounted for 95% of malaria cases globally. Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), Mozambique (4%), and Niger (3%) accounted for about 51% of all cases globally. The WHO African Region, with an estimated 215 million cases in 2019, accounted for about 94% of the cases.
India contributed to the largest absolute reductions in the WHO South-East Asia Region, from about 20 million cases in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019. Sri Lanka was certified malaria-free in 2015, and Timor-Leste reported zero malaria cases in 2018 and 2019.
Eliminating malaria in all countries, especially those with a high disease burden, will likely require tools that are not available today. In September 2019, the WHO Director-General issued a “malaria challenge,” calling on the global health community to ramp up investment in the research and development of new malaria-fighting tools and approaches. This message was further reinforced in the April 2020 report of the WHO Strategic advisory group on malaria eradication.
You can also read the report in a double-page view.
