World Malaria Report 2024: Accelerating progress and preserving the gains of the fight against malaria 

Today the World Health Organization published its annual World Malaria Report. 

Since 2000, malaria control efforts have helped avert 2.2 billion cases and 12.7 million deaths worldwide. In 2023 alone, more than 177 million cases and 1 million deaths were averted globally. Most cases (80%) and deaths (94%) averted were in the WHO African Region. 

Many countries with a low burden of malaria continue to move steadily towards the goal of elimination. In 2023, more than half (47) of the 83 malaria-endemic countries worldwide reported less than 10 000 cases of the disease. 

The African Region continues to bear the heaviest burden of malaria, accounting for an estimated 94% of global cases and 95% of malaria-related deaths in 2023. Just over half of these deaths occurred in four countries: Nigeria (30.9%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (11.3%), Niger (5.9%) and United Republic of Tanzania (4.3%). In 2023, there were an estimated 263 million new malaria cases in 83 countries worldwide, up from 252 million in 2022 and 226 million in 2015. Out of the estimated 263 million malaria cases, an estimated 12,573,000 were in Uganda, 8,139,000 in Burkina Faso and 6,552,000 in Ghana. 

Despite some gains in Africa’s malaria response, progress must be accelerated. Approximately two thirds of global malaria cases and deaths are concentrated in 11 African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.  

There are many threats to progress made against malaria such as funding gaps, poverty, climate change, humanitarian emergencies such as conflicts, and lack of access to essential services such as treatment and preventative methods. Mosquito resistance to insecticide-treated nets and treatments and the spread of Anopheles stephensi among others also raise a concern to stall the progress already made. 

Although the challenges are increasing, we have a lot of positive progress as well, such as the WHO-recommended malaria vaccine which 17 countries have introduced through childhood immunization. Between 2019 and 2023, approximately 2 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi received a malaria vaccine, with many more to follow. This scale-up of malaria vaccines in Africa is expected to save tens of thousands of young lives every year.  

However, the highest impact will be achieved when the vaccines are introduced alongside a mix of other malaria interventions that are tailored to the local context, such as new generation bed nets, drugs and the use of genetic technologies.  

At Target Malaria, we are developing gene drive mosquitoes as a future potential vector control tool. We are adapting a natural genetic mechanism called “gene drive”, to bias the rate of inheritance in order to spread a genetic modification in malaria mosquitoes to make them sterile. Used jointly with other malaria control tools, gene drive mosquitoes hold the promise of being a self-sustaining and cost-effective method to reduce the population of malaria mosquitoes in the future. You can read more information about our work here. 

Although the findings from this year’s report lay bare the heavy burden of malaria in Africa, they also paint a hopeful picture around the opportunities to accelerate progress. With the right investment, research and development, community engagement and political will, it is possible to reverse the trends and accelerate progress towards malaria elimination. Now is the time to act. 

Read the key findings from last year’s World Malaria Report report here.