New prevention tools against malaria—including dual-ingredient mosquito nets and WHO-recommended vaccines—helped avert an estimated 170 million cases and save 1 million lives in 2024, according to the latest World Malaria Report released by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite these achievements, growing drug resistance and funding shortfalls threaten to reverse progress.
Since WHO approved the world’s first malaria vaccines in 2021, 24 countries have now integrated them into routine immunization schedules. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention is also expanding rapidly and reached 54 million children across 20 countries in 2024, compared to just 200,000 in 2012. Elimination milestones are also being reached: 47 countries and one territory have been certified malaria-free, including Cabo Verde and Egypt in 2024, and Georgia, Suriname and Timor-Leste in 2025.
However, malaria remains a deadly threat. The report estimates 282 million cases and 610,000 deaths in 2024—around 9 million more cases than the previous year. Approximately 95% of deaths occurred in the WHO African Region, mostly among children under five. Rising antimalarial drug resistance is a major concern, with signs of partial resistance to artemisinin derivatives confirmed or suspected in at least eight African countries.
“New tools for prevention of malaria are giving us new hope, but we still face significant challenges,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Increasing numbers of cases and deaths, the growing threat of drug resistance and the impact of funding cuts all threaten to roll back the progress we have made over the past two decades. However, none of these challenges is insurmountable.”
Additional threats include the spread of Anopheles stephensi, an insecticide-resistant mosquito now detected in nine African countries and driving rising urban malaria risk, as well as widespread resistance to pyrethroid-based nets. Climate extremes, conflicts, fragile health systems, and disrupted diagnostic reliability—due to pfhrp2 gene deletions—are also undermining response efforts.
Financing constraints are deepening the crisis. Global investment in malaria totalled US$3.9 billion in 2024, less than half the US$9.3 billion target set for 2025. Recent reductions in Official Development Assistance have forced cancellations of malaria campaigns, weakened surveillance, and increased the risk of stock-outs of essential tools.
Dr Martin Fitchet, CEO of Medicines for Malaria Venture, stressed the urgency of new drug development. “Drug resistance is advancing. Our response must be equally clear—new medicines with new mechanisms of action,” he said, pointing to the first non-artemisinin combination therapy, Ganaplacide–Lumefantrine, as a promising advance.
WHO is calling for malaria-endemic countries to uphold commitments under the Yaoundé Declaration and for partners to unite behind the Big Push initiative to sustain momentum. With strong political leadership and targeted investment, Dr Tedros emphasized, the goal of a malaria-free world remains within reach.
