World Malaria Day, observed every year on April 25, is an occasion to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control. In 2024, the theme as designated by the World Health Organization is "Accelerate the Fight Against Malaria for a More Equitable World". For a fact, the world is behind in the fight against malaria. The WHO's goal to reduce the number of countries where the disease is endemic to 75 by 2025 will likely not be reached. In 2022, malaria was still active in 85 countries, down from 95 in 2015.
As this infographic shows, while progress has been made over the last two decades, there is still an incredible amount of work to be done. Globally in 2000 there were a total of 108 endemic countries. By 2022 this had dropped to 85, yet nearly half of the world's population was still classified as 'at risk' of malaria. There were an estimated 608,000 deaths caused by the disease in 2022 - down from 897,000 in 2000. However, cases were still up that year - from 244 million in 2021 to 249 million in 2022. Of these cases, half occurred in just four countries, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Mozambique. The countries newly declared malaria free were Capo Verde in 2024 as well as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Belize in 2023.
In South and Eastern Asia, malaria deaths decreased by 77 percent since 2000, compared to just around 30 percent globally. India recorded almost 3.4 million cases, while local funding for the disease grew.
