WHO joins partner organizations in promoting this year’s World Malaria Day theme, “Ready to beat malaria”. This theme underscores the collective energy and commitment of the global malaria community in uniting around the common goal of a world free of malaria.
Ready to beat malaria
Urgent action is required to get the global fight against malaria back on track. That’s why WHO is calling for greater investment and expanded coverage of proven tools that prevent, diagnose and treat malaria.
The global response to malaria is at a crossroads. After an unprecedented period of success in malaria control, progress has stalled.
The current pace is insufficient to achieve the 2020 milestones of the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030 – specifically, targets calling for a 40% reduction in malaria case incidence and death rates.
Countries with ongoing transmission are increasingly falling into one of 2 categories: those moving towards elimination and those with a high burden of the disease that have reported significant increases in malaria cases.
Malaria by numbers: global and regional malaria burden
In 2016, there were 216 million cases of malaria in 91 countries, 5 million more than the 211 million cases reported in 2015. This marks a return to 2012 levels.
Malaria continues to claim a significant number of lives: in 2016, 445 000 people died from malaria globally, compared to 446 000 estimated deaths in 2015.
Children under 5 are particularly susceptible to malaria. The disease claims the life of a child every 2 minutes.
Fifteen countries – all but one in sub-Saharan Africa – carry 80% of the global malaria burden.
Estimated malaria burden by WHO region in 2016
| WHO Region | Malaria cases | Malaria deaths |
| African | 194 million | 407 000 |
| Americas | 875 000 | 650 |
| Eastern Mediterranean | 4.3 million | 8200 |
| South-East Asia | 14.6 million | 27 000 |
| Western Pacific | 1.6 million | 3300 |
| World | 216 million | 445 000 |
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