Malaria facts & statistics
Malaria facts and statistics
Each year, the World Health Organization's World Malaria Report assesses global and regional malaria trends, highlights progress towards global targets and describes opportunities and challenges in controlling and eliminating the disease. Below are some of the highlights from the 2023 report.
- There were 249 million malaria cases in 2022, an increase of 5 million vs. 2021.
- This increase was mainly concentrated in five countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda and Papua New Guinea, due to factors like catastrophic weather events, population growth and conflict/forced migration.
- The number of lives lost to malaria declined marginally vs. 2021, to 608,000 deaths – still significantly higher than 2019, which saw 576,000 deaths.
- 76% of global malaria deaths were in children under 5 years old. That's more than 1,000 children dying of malaria every day, mostly in Africa.
- 94% of cases and 95% of deaths were in the WHO African Region.
- Four countries – Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%) and Mozambique (4%) – accounted for almost half of all cases globally.
- Globally, an estimated 2.1 billion malaria cases and 11.7 million malaria deaths were averted in the 2000-2022 period.
- Insecticide treated net (ITN) use remains generally unchanged, with only 50% of people sleeping under a net.
- Intermittent Preventive Treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) was up significantly in 2022 (42% vs. 34% in 2021), but too many pregnant women are still missing out on malaria prevention treatments.
- The delivery of 217 million courses of Artemisinin Combination Therapy antimalarial treatment last year was less than in 2021.
- Amongst the numerous challenges facing malaria elimination, climate change was a focus in this year’s report.
Endemic countries’ commitment and global resolve to control and eliminate malaria have led to some successes in 2022-2023, including:
- The scale-up of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) reaching 49.4 million children in 2022 at high risk of severe malaria.
- Roll-out of the world’s first malaria vaccine, RTS,S/AS01, in 2022 and a WHO recommendation for a second, cheaper vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, in 2023.
- Availability of a new generation of dual-active ingredient insecticide-treated nets.
- The achievement of malaria elimination in a widening circle of countries: between 2000 and 2022, 25 countries that were malaria endemic in 2000 have achieved three consecutive years of zero indigenous malaria cases. Twelve of these countries were certified malaria-free by WHO.
- 12 countries are part of the High Burden High Impact (HBHI) approach and are tailoring their interventions at a sub-national level for optimal impact. These countries accounted for 67% of all cases and 73% of deaths globally.
World Malaria Report 2023
MMV's work to prevent, treat and eliminate malaria
Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC)
One of the success stories in 2022 is SMC, an MMV-supported intervention which reached 49.4 million children in 17 African countries. Nigeria, with the highest malaria burden of any country, accounted for 50% of the children treated. Mozambique increased coverage 12-fold and South Sudan implemented SMC for the first time. Read more about SMC.
Equity for pregnant women
Together with accelerating IPTp, MMV’s Malaria in Mothers and Babies (MiMBa) initiative continues to spearhead equitable access to safe antimalarials for pregnant women, who are among the highest at risk of severe illness and death from malaria. A key priority is to use pregnancy registries and expand clinical research to generate safety and dosing evidence for the use of existing antimalarials amongst pregnant women in their first trimester. Read more about antimalarials for pregnant women.
Solutions against antimalarial resistance
Genetic markers of drug-resistant strains of malaria spreading in Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa are ringing alarm bells. Working closely with African pioneering countries, MMV is supporting the adoption of multiple first-line therapies (MFT) and developing next generation medicines that can counter resistance. Read more about antimalarial drug resistance.
Quality-assured African manufacturing
With MMV support, Universal Corporation Ltd (UCL), based in Kenya, became the first African manufacturer to receive WHO prequalification in August 2022 for sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine (SPAQ), the WHO-recommended medicine for SMC. As 95% of malaria cases occur in Africa, this will improve supply security for these large-scale prevention campaigns. Read more about African antimalarial manufacturing.