2 weeks Ago By The Frontier Post
LONDON (Reuters) : There were around 11 million more cases of malaria in 2023 than in 2022, up to an estimated 263 million, according to a new World Health Organization report, marking another year of negligible progress against the age-old killer. There were 597,000 deaths, a similar total to 2022, the vast majority among African children aged under 5 years old, the WHO said. “No-one should die of malaria; yet the disease continues to disproportionately harm people living in the African region, especially young children and pregnant women,” said Dr.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in a statement. Malaria cases and deaths fell significantly between 2000 and 2015, but since then progress has stalled and even reversed, with a particular jump in mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Case numbers are not only going up as populations grow.
In 2015, there were 58 cases for every 1,000 people deemed to be at risk; in 2023, there were 60.4, nearly three times higher than the WHO’s target. There were 13.
7 deaths per 100,000 people at risk, more than twice the target. There are new tools available to fight the mosquito-borne disease, including two vaccines as well as next-generation bed nets, but climate change, conflict and displacement, drug and insecticide resistance and a lack of funding have all combined to challenge the response, the WHO said, despite progress in some countries. In 2023, $4 billion was available to fight malaria, compared with an estimated $8.
3 billion needed, the UN health agency added..
