To commemorate World Malaria Day 2023, World Health Organization has urged the countries affected by the disease globally to accelerate the reach of high-impact tools and strategies to prevent, detect and treat malaria, with a focus on reaching the most vulnerable, ensuring that no person or population is left behind.
According to WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, in the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis, the world is not on track to reach the two critical targets of the WHO Global technical strategy (GTS) for malaria 2016-2030: reducing global case incidence and mortality by 90 per cent or more by 2030, based on 2015 levels. Dr Poonam said that in 2021, an estimated 619,000 people globally died of malaria compared to 625,000 in 2020.
There were an estimated 247 million new cases of malaria, compared to 245 million in 2020.
The WHO South-East Asia region continues to lead globally.
By the end of 2020, the South-East Asia region was the only WHO region to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in malaria case incidence and mortality compared to 2015 – the first GTS milestone, the Director said.