Over 6 lakh lives lost due to malaria in 2024: WHO

Malaria infected an estimated 282 million people and claimed 610000 lives worldwide in 2024 according to the World Health Organizationrsquos WHO annual World Malaria Report on Thursday December 4 which highlighted drug resistance as a major threat to elimination effortsWhile the WHOrecommended vaccines helped to prevent an estimated 170 million cases and one million deaths in 2024 this was roughly 9 million more than the previous yearAn estimated 95 per cent of these deaths were in the African Region with most occurring among children under 5India accounted for 733 per cent of all cases in the WHO SouthEast Asia Region The country also reported 887 per cent per cent of all deaths in the regionThe report showed that progress in reducing the malaria deaths a key target of the Global Technical Strategy for malaria 20162030 remains far off trackIt noted that antimalarial drug resistance has now been confirmed or suspected in at least 8 countries in Africa and there are potential signs of declining efficacy of the drugs that are combined with artemisininOther risks to malaria elimination efforts include the prevalence of malaria parasites with pfhrp2 gene deletions undermining the reliability of rapid diagnostic tests while confirmed pyrethroid resistance in 48 countries is reducing the effectiveness of insecticidetreated netsAt the same time Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes resistant to many commonly used insecticides have now invaded 9 African countries posing a serious challenge to urban malaria control effortsNotably progress is also being made in eliminating malaria To date a total of 47 countries and one territory have been certified malariafree by WHO Cabo Verde and Egypt were certified malariafree in 2024 and Georgia Suriname and TimorLeste joined them in 2025The report noted that the WHO approved the worlds first malaria vaccines in 2021 and 24 countries have introduced the vaccines into their routine immunisation programmesNew tools for prevention of malaria are giving us new hope but we still face significant challenges said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO DirectorGeneralIncreasing numbers of cases and deaths the growing threat of drug resistance and the impact of funding cuts all threaten to roll back the progress we have made over the past two decades Ghebreyesus addedThe report also noted other risks such as extreme weather events changes in temperature and rainfall contributing to increased outbreaks of malaria conflict and instability limiting access to careThe challenge is further exacerbated by the plateauing of global funding over the last decade limiting the reach of lifesaving interventionsHowever none of the challenges is insurmountable With the leadership of the mostaffected countries and targeted investment the vision of a malariafree world remains achievable said the WHO chiefThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever