The World Health Organisation, WHO, reported on Wednesday that malaria mortality had returned to pre-COVID-19 levels but urged greater action against the disease that killed about 597,000 people last year.
According to a recent World Health Organisation report, the number of malaria deaths was mostly unchanged in 2023, with an estimated 263 million cases globally, 11 million more than the previous year.
The WHO’s Global Malaria Programme’s Arnaud Le Menach, however, informed reporters that the fatality rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Malaria-related mortality increased significantly in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptions, with an additional 55,000 deaths reported in that year.
Since then, the overall number of deaths from malaria—a parasite spread by mosquitoes—has steadily decreased, as has the fatality rate.
WHO stated that “progress must be accelerated” because the target level set by a worldwide strategy to eradicate malaria until 2030 is still more than doubled by the predicted 2023 mortality rate in Africa, which is 52.4 deaths per 100,000 people at risk.
A hopeful development, the larger distribution of malaria vaccines is anticipated to save tens of thousands of child lives annually, according to the WHO.
RTS, S, and R21/Matrix-M, the two currently used vaccines, have the potential to greatly reduce the burden of malaria in Africa, where it is responsible for up to 95% of all malaria-related fatalities.
In April 2019, Malawi became the first country to introduce malaria vaccinations, followed by Kenya and Ghana.
According to the WHO, around two million children in those three nations received RTS and S vaccinations through the end of 2023.
According to Mary Hamel, who leads WHO’s malaria vaccine team, “We saw in those three pilot countries… a 13-percent drop in mortality during the four years of the pilot program.”
She told reporters that the WHO now anticipated a similar decline in the number of nations implementing the immunisations, noting that those that started doing so earlier this year were “following a similar trajectory.”
According to her, 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have so far incorporated the vaccinations into their regular vaccination schedules.
According to the WHO, eight more nations have been permitted to use the vaccination alliance GAVI to obtain money for the introduction of the vaccines.
The increasing availability of new-generation dual-insecticide networks is another encouraging development.
It has been demonstrated that these nets provide significantly superior protection against malaria when coated in a new generation pyrrole insecticide in addition to the conventional pyrethroid insecticide.
According to a WHO estimate earlier this year, over three years, these nets prevented around 25,000 fatalities and 13 million instances of malaria.
Notwithstanding the achievements, the WHO identified several obstacles impeding the fight against malaria, such as a lack of funding and inadequate vaccine supplies, as well as climate change, which is permitting a wider distribution of the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite.
In a statement, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that “in high-burden African countries, increased investments and action are required to curb the threat.”
The Global Fund, a collaboration established to combat malaria, TB, and AIDS, concurred.
In a statement, its executive director Peter Sands cautioned that “progress has stagnated for several years.”
“Investing in new technologies and reducing the burden that climate change places on healthcare systems are two ways we can accelerate our efforts to overcome this,” he stated.
