WHO Warns of Rising Malaria Deaths

According to WHO, malaria has been increasing in cases and mortality, which requires greater global investments in healthcare.

A global healthcare alert was raised by the World Health Organization that confirmed the increase in the cases and death rate of malaria last year. The most recent report estimates that there have been 282 million cases and 610,000 deaths in the world in 2024, which highlights the continued menace of the disease despite the available healthcare interventions.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO warned that declining progress seen over two decades is being reversed by rising numbers of infections, resistance to treatment and deflation of funding. He pointed out that high-burden countries need to invest specifically and have stronger leadership in order to realize the long-range healthcare objectives, such as a malaria-free world.

Africa continues to be the epicenter of the crisis, where it accounts for 94 percent of the cases and 95 percent of the deaths worldwide of the malaria disease, where children under five years old constitute three-quarters of the deaths. More than half of the total cases are covered by five countries, which include Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Nevertheless, the WHO demonstrated significant healthcare improvement. Since 24 countries have been added to the immunization schedules of malaria vaccines since the adoption of the first shots in 2021. The scope of chemoprevention has grown beyond measure, with 54 million children receiving it in 2024; this is a tremendous increase versus the mere 200,000 that received it in 2021. Also, 47 nations and a territory are currently certified to be malaria-free.

Nevertheless, climate change, civil war, drug resistance, and endemic underfunding will undo progress. Malaria experts at the WHO are concerned that the death tolls of the disease are still miles away from reaching their global reduction targets, with the present mortality rates being more than three times higher than the target.

The report urges the world's healthcare commitment to be re-energized so as to bar a significant resurgence.