Key facts about malaria

229 Million Global CasesThe World Health Organization (WHO) African Region accounts for about 94% of cases. |
Population at RiskHalf of the world population is at risk from malaria. |
409,000 DeathsAbout 95% of malaria deaths globally are in 31 countries. |
87 Countries & Territories...reported indigenous malaria cases in 2019. Twenty-nine countries account for 95% of malaria cases globally. |
Progress
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Globally, there were an estimated 229 million malaria cases in 2019 in 87 malaria-endemic countries, declining from 238 million in 2000.
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In the period 2000–2019, an estimated 1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million malaria deaths have been averted.
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Malaria case incidence (i.e. cases per 1000 population at risk) reduced from 80 in 2000 to 58 in 2015 and 57 in 2019 globally.
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From 2000 to 2019, the number of countries with fewer than 100 indigenous cases increased from 6 to 27.
Required Health Expenditure
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Between 2007 and 2018, almost US$ 7.3 billion was invested in basic research and product development for malaria.
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The malaria R&D funding landscape has been led by investment in:
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Drugs (US$ 2.6 billion, 36% of malaria funding between 2007 and 2018)
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Basic research (US$ 1.9 billion, 26%)
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Vaccines R&D (US$ 1.8 billion, 25%)
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Vector control products (US$ 453 million, 6.2%)
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Vector control diagnostic (US$ 185 million, 2.5%)
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Over the period 2010–2019, international sources provided 70% of the total funding for malaria control and elimination, led by the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), and France.
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Total funding for malaria control and elimination in 2019 was estimated at US$ 3.0 billion, compared with US$ 2.7 billion in 2018. The amount invested in 2019 falls short of the US$ 5.6 billion estimated to be required, leaving a funding gap of at least US$ 2.6 billion.
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Of the US$ 3.0 billion invested in 2019, US$ 2.1 billion came from international funders. The highest contributions in 2019 were from the USA, which provided a total of US$ 1.1 billion, followed by the UK, and then US$ 0.1 billion from France, Germany, and Japan. Of the US$ 3.0 billion invested in 2019, nearly US$ 1.2 billion (39%) was channelled through the Global Fund.
Current Level of Coverage
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Globally, 2.7 billion rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria were sold by manufacturers in 2010–2019, with nearly 80% of these sales being to sub-Saharan African countries. In the same period, national malaria programmes (NMPs) distributed 1.9 billion RDTs – 84% in sub-Saharan Africa.
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National data reported by NMPs show that, in the same period, 1.9 billion artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) were delivered to health service providers to treat malaria patients in the public health sector.
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Manufacturers’ delivery data for 2004–2019 show that nearly 2.2 billion insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) were supplied globally in that period, of which 1.9 billion (86%) were supplied to sub-Saharan Africa.
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Manufacturers delivered about 253 million ITNs to malaria endemic countries in 2019, an increase of 56 million ITNs compared with 2018. About 84% of these ITNs were delivered to countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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By 2019, 68% of households in sub-Saharan Africa had at least one ITN, increasing from about 5% in 2000. Subsequently, the percentage of the population sleeping under an ITN also increased considerably between 2000 and 2019, for the whole population (from 2% to 46%), for children aged under 5 years (from 3% to 52%), and for pregnant women (from 3% to 52%).
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The number of children reached with at least one dose of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) steadily increased, from about 0.2 million in 2012 to about 21.5 million in 2019.