Each year, more than 600 000 people die of malaria – a treatable disease. The primary objective of treatment is to ensure the rapid and complete elimination of the parasites causing the disease from a patient’s bloodstream in order to prevent an uncomplicated case of malaria from progressing to severe disease or death. Effective treatment reduces transmission of the infection to others and also prevents the emergence and spread of resistance to antimalarial medicines.

In order to provide Member States with the most up-to-date and accurate recommendations on the treatment of malaria, WHO, through its various expert groups, regularly reviews evidence on current and new treatments to ensure that its recommendations are based on the most recent evidence. New and updated recommendations are published in the WHO guidelines for malaria. These consolidated guidelines bring together all of WHO's current recommendations for malaria – they are intended as a “living resource” and are updated periodically as and when new evidence becomes available.WHO also supports Member States to translate these recommendations into national policies as well as to ensure their effective implementation.

WHO maintains a list of medicines that are used as first-line treatment in endemic countries for uncomplicated and severe malaria, as well as for prevention and treatment during pregnancy.