World Malaria Day 2025

In the 1960s, malaria was retreating – until the world hit pause. Global eradication efforts were abandoned in 1969, and millions of lives were lost. It took 30 years for the world to fight back against the deadly disease. Let’s not let history repeat itself.  

On World Malaria Day 2025, WHO joins the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and other partners in promoting “Malaria Ends With Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite”, a grassroots campaign that aims to re-energize efforts at all levels, from global policy to community action, to accelerate progress towards malaria elimination. 

The global community recommitted to malaria in the late 1990s and, as a result, an estimated 2.2 billion cases and 12.7 million deaths have been prevented over more than two decades. But after years of steady declines, progress has stalled. Today, malaria claims an estimated 1 life every minute, with most deaths occurring in the WHO African Region.  

Further progress and decades of hard-won gains are in jeopardy. Extreme weather events, conflict, humanitarian emergencies, and economic stresses are disrupting malaria control efforts in many endemic countries, leaving tens of millions of people with limited access to the services they need to prevent, detect and treat the disease. Without prompt treatment, malaria can rapidly escalate to severe illness and death.   

It’s time to recommit to ending malaria. We have the knowledge, life-saving tools and targeted prevention, testing and treatment methods to defeat this disease. We must reinvest in proven interventions, reimagine our strategies to overcome current obstacles, and reignite our collective efforts together with countries and communities to accelerate progress towards ending malaria.