MMV and WHO launch new malaria map tool
On the 6th World Malaria Day, MMV and the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Programme (WHO/GMP) launch the Global Malaria Mapper – a newly-designed mapping tool that allows users to build customized maps using data from WHO’s World Malaria Report.
Malaria occurs in 99 countries worldwide, exacting a heavy toll on human health and imposing a major social and economic burden on endemic countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. A recent expansion of malaria interventions – including a scale up of mosquito control measures, diagnostic testing and treatment – has contributed to a significant decrease in the malaria burden around the world. The World Malaria Report is an annual report containing comprehensive data and analysis on the malaria situation in all endemic countries.
To make this enormous amount of data visually accessible and easier to understand, MMV has worked with Comstone (for design), MeDev (for web development) and WHO/GMP to develop a new interactive online tool. Unlike paper atlases, the Global Malaria Mapper allows users to create maps illustrating a range of themes, including epidemiological profiles for countries and regions, reported cases and deaths, laboratory confirmation, or the scale-up of interventions within a given geographical location. All this at the click of a button.
“By creating an interactive map tool to visualize the World Malaria Report, the data becomes accessible and easier to interpret,” said George Jagoe, EVP Access and Project Management at MMV. “Anyone interested in data on malaria control can benefit from this new tool and customize maps for their presentations or reports.”
“Through the Global Malaria Mapper, control programmes in endemic countries and malaria partners will be able to interact with malaria maps and build their own visualizations of the malaria situation around the world,” said Dr Richard Cibulskis, Coordinator for Strategy, Economics and Elimination at the WHO Global Malaria Programme. “In addition to being a tremendous research tool, we hope that the Mapper will help to strengthen the malaria response at country level.”