This archive report was first published on 23 August 2019.
On a somber note, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed deep concern over the slowing down of progress in the global fight against malaria. According to the WHO, the world is at a crossroads, with the last decade's achievements in reducing malaria cases and deaths clearly slowing down.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO's malaria programme, highlighted the alarming statistics: over 400,000 deaths and 200 million cases every year. This is despite significant progress made between 2000 and 2015 in reducing malaria cases and deaths.
The WHO report warns that the 2020 targets to cut incidence and mortality by 90 percent by 2030 will likely be missed. Even with the most optimistic scenarios and projections, the organization predicts that there will still be 11 million cases in Africa in 2050.
Sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of malaria, accounting for 90 percent of related deaths in 2018. The WHO emphasizes that the illness disproportionately affects the most vulnerable – the very young and the poor – with three in five malaria fatalities being children under the age of five.
To combat this, the WHO is calling for a massive concerted and coordinated action, requiring a significant investment of $34 billion between now and 2030. This investment will focus on improving healthcare provision, vaccination, and surveillance of the threat.
However, the current vaccine is only 40 percent effective, and the WHO decries that global funding for malaria has remained relatively stagnant since 2010. If aid can be targeted to the 29 worst-hit countries, beefed-up intervention could reduce cases by two billion and fatalities by four million by 2030.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed his vision for a malaria-free world, first expressed in the wake of the organization's founding in 1948. He emphasized that there are no biological obstacles to prevent this goal, and that with new tools and approaches, this vision can become a reality.
