Malaria at a Glance
Every malaria death follows the exact same pattern: a child, a pregnant mother, a family left without the protective shield of our proven tools.
This is not a mystery disease. We have the science, the tools, and the track record. But having the tools is not enough—they require systematic use to build a barrier. And today, our front-line defenses are facing their greatest threat: rapidly evolving biological resistance and shrinking budgets.
Nearly half of the world's population lives in areas at risk of malaria transmission, across 80 countries and territories.
In 2024, malaria caused an estimated 282 million clinical episodes and 610K deaths.
An estimated 94% of deaths in 2024 were in the WHO African Region.
In 33 moderate-to-high transmission countries in the WHO African Region, there were an estimated 36 million pregnancies, of which 13 million (36%) were infected with malaria.
75% of all deaths in Africa were among children aged under 5 years in 2024.
In 2024 alone, more than 170 million cases and over 1 million deaths were averted globally.
Proven Tools, Shrinking Budgets
When used systematically and correctly, our five-layered prevention shield—nets, seasonal medicines, pregnancy treatments, indoor spraying, and infant vaccines—saves millions of young lives. Today, however, declining global funding threatens to erase these hard-won gains. Shrinking budgets directly endanger nightly net distributions, monthly seasonal treatments, clinical maternal dosing, community spray campaigns, and pediatric vaccine rollouts, leaving a generation of vulnerable children exposed once again.
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ITN shipments by country, year and type
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World
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Nets Shipped
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Nets Distributed
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ITN Use (%)
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World values are calculated using all available country data. Not all countries have data available for every indicator or reporting period.
Test Before Treating: Safeguarding the Cure
Every fever is not malaria. Treating patients without a diagnosis drives parasite mutation and accelerates drug resistance, threatening to render our last-line cures useless. A 15-minute rapid diagnostic test ensures that precious $2 treatments are reserved exclusively for confirmed cases. Testing first protects sick children with the correct medicine while shielding our most powerful antimalarials from evolutionary breakdown.
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Reported malaria cases by category
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World
Suspected Case: A patient presenting with symptoms consistent with malaria (e.g., fever) and reported as suspected malaria. Suspected cases may subsequently be presumed or confirmed.
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Suspected
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Treated Case: A patient who has received antimalarial treatment.
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Treated
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Confirmed Case: Malaria cases with a positive diagnostic test (microscopy or RDT).
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Confirmed
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World values are calculated using all available country data. Not all countries have data available for every indicator or reporting period.
Source:Reported malaria cases by method of confirmation, 2015–2024
Breaking the Vector Cycle Permanently
Elimination is achieved when a country records zero indigenous cases for three consecutive years. This requires transitioning from passive healthcare to aggressive active surveillance—testing every contact of every infected person to extinguish outbreaks before they spread.
Each of the 48 certified nations proved that strong local health infrastructure can defeat the disease entirely, ensuring no more children die of a mosquito bite in these regions.
Since 1962, 48 countries and territories have been certified malaria-free, with the most recent being Georgia, Suriname, and Timor-Leste in 2025.
The Perfect Storm: Cases increasing and Insecticide/Drug Resistance
Cases are surging in countries where the burden is already heaviest. In these high-burden zones, the crisis is actively expanding. In addition, we are facing a dual biological crisis: mosquitoes are mutating to survive the insecticides used on bed nets and in indoor spraying, while the malaria parasite is developing resistance to Artemisinin—the cornerstone of our best curative drugs. When these resistant strains collide with rising cases, our most powerful tools fail, turning treatable infections back into fatal ones.
This dashboard is the sole work and responsibility of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Stagnation is a Mortality Crisis
As biological resistance spreads and global funding flatlines, progress has ground to a halt. This stagnation has a direct body count: over 75% of all global malaria deaths are concentrated in children under five. Without urgent, adaptive strategies to counter insecticide and drug mutations, we face a catastrophic reversal of two decades of public health gains.