Botswana: Global Malaria Target Met Amid Sharp Drop in Cases

Malaria death rates have plunged by 60 % since 2000, but the ancient killer remains an acute public health problem with 15 nations mainly in sub-Saharan Africa accounting for some 80 % of cases and deaths globally, according to a new United Nations statement released today.

“World malaria control is one of the great public health success stories of the completed 15 years,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO). “It’s a sign that our strategies are on target, and that we can beat this ancient killer, which still claims hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly children, each year.”

The joint statement by WHO and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – Achieving the Malaria Millennium Development Goal Target – shows that the MDG target of halving and beginning to reverse the incidence of malaria by 2015 has been met “convincingly.”

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said “malaria kills mostly young children, particularly those living in the poorest and most remote places. So the best way to celebrate world evolution in the fight against it is to recommit ourselves to reaching and treating them.”

“We know how to prevent and treat malaria,” Mr. Lake said. “Since we can do it, we must.”

Malaria death rates have plunged by 60 % over the completed 15 years, translating into 6.2 million lives saved, and new malaria cases have dropped by 37 % since 2000, according to the statement, which was released in London.

“An increasing number of nations are on the verge of eliminating malaria,” stated the statement.

“In 2014, 13 nations reported zero cases of the disease and six nations reported fewer than 10 cases,” it said. “The fastest decreases were seen in the Caucasus and Central Asia, which reported zero cases in 2014, and in Eastern Asia.”

But malaria remains an acute public health problem in a lot of regions.

“In 2015 alone, there were an estimated 214 million new cases of malaria, and approximately 438,000 people died of this preventable and treatable disease,” the statement said. “About 3.2 billion people – almost half of the world’s people – are at risk of malaria.”

And some nations carry a disproportionately high share of the world malaria burden. Fifteen nations, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, accounted for 80 % of malaria cases and 78 % of deaths globally in 2015.

According to WHO, children under five account for additional than two-thirds of all deaths associated with malaria. Between 2000 and 2015, the under-five malaria death rate fell by 65 % or an estimated 5.9 million child lives saved.

A surge in funding has led to an unprecedented expansion in the delivery of core interventions across sub-Saharan Africa.

In May 2015, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO World Technical Strategy for Malaria – a new 15-year road map for malaria control. The strategy aims at a further 90 % reduction in world malaria incidence and mortality by 2030.

The WHO-UNICEF statement noted that annual funding for malaria will need to triple – from $2.7 billion today to $8.7 billion in 2030.