Malaria

Malaria transmission occurs in 84 countries across five WHO regions. Since 2015, the WHO European Region has been free of malaria.

According to the  , there were 247 million estimated cases of malaria

uncertainty range 224–276 million) globally in 2021 (and 619 000 estimated malaria deaths (uncertainty range 577 000–754000). Since 2016, malaria cases have increased; the largest annual increase of 13 million cases was observed between 2019 and 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, an estimated additional 13.4 million cases were attributed to disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Malaria case incidence reduced from 82.3 per 1000 population at risk in 2000 to 57.2 in 2019, before increasing again to 59.4 in 2020. There was no change in case incidence between 2020 and 2021.

Globally, estimated malaria deaths reduced steadily over the period 2000–2019, from 897 000 to 568 000. In 2020, malaria deaths increased by 10% compared with 2019 to 625 000 and declined slightly in 2021. Between 2019 and 2021 there were 63 000 deaths that were due to disruptions to essential malaria services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malaria burden was heaviest in the WHO African Region, with an estimated 95% of cases and 96% of deaths; 78.9% of all deaths in this region are among children aged under 5 years. 

Source: WMR2022 Mobile App, WMR2022