The fight against malaria is one of humanity's most significant public health successes. In countries where the Global Fund invests, malaria deaths have dropped by 45% since the Global Fund was founded in 2002. But after years of steady declines, malaria cases are on the rise. Funding has plateaued, and drug and insecticide resistance are increasing, risking a resurgence of the disease and loss of hard-won gains. COVID-19 has further disrupted progress.
Fighting back
Malaria, caused by a parasite spread by certain types of mosquitoes, is among the world's deadliest infectious diseases. Pregnant women and children under age five are most at risk because of their weaker immune systems. In 2019, children under five accounted for 67% of all malaria deaths worldwide.
Malaria is present in more than 80 countries, and these increasingly fall into one of two categories: those progressing toward elimination and those with a high burden and experiencing setbacks. The Global Fund is urgently working to accelerate the needed investments in malaria control, prevention and treatment while safeguarding the world's progress during the pandemic.
The Global Fund / Pamela Tulizo / Panos
COVID-19 and malaria
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic made it extremely challenging to maintain essential malaria prevention and case management services. Despite these challenges, the pandemic has spurred innovations and adaptations to continue the fight against malaria. However, we did not see the same year-on-year progress as in previous years.
History shows that the disease will relentlessly exploit these lapses. Impressive gains can be wiped out during a single transmission season, and failure to maintain effective control can result in resurgence. A “rebound” can make the situation even worse than before control efforts because people lose the partial immunity acquired through repeated exposure to malaria. To prevent devastating long-term impacts on the fight against malaria, we must urgently scale up adaptation and mitigation efforts to regain lost progress. Learn more
How we fight
The Global Fund provides 56% of all international financing for malaria, and has invested more than US$14.7 billion in malaria control programs as of June 2021. Our comprehensive approach combines:
- Education about symptoms, prevention and treatment
- Prevention through use of mosquito nets, spraying structures with insecticide and preventive treatment for children and pregnant women
- Diagnosis, including supplying rapid diagnostic tests to community health workers
- Treatment, including the Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) in the Greater Mekong
Tracking progress
We are relentless in the fight against malaria because we know Global Fund investments save lives. Malaria deaths were reduced by 45% since 2002 in countries where the Global Fund invests.
Through leveraging economies of scale, working with partners and negotiating directly with manufacturers, we reduced the cost of an insecticide-treated mosquito net by 36% and the average cost of artemisinin-based combination (ACT) therapies by 39% between 2014 and 2020. Savings generated through the reduction in treatment costs alone enabled us to provide more than 59.8 million additional antimalarial treatments.
Progress toward elimination underscores the fact that we have effective tools and strategies to halt malaria. The issue is investment. An estimated US$2.7 billion was invested in malaria control and elimination efforts globally in 2018 – a reduction from the US$3.2 billion invested in 2017, and well short of the US$5 billion estimated to be required globally to stay on track toward agreed milestones.
“Today we are talking about self-driving cars and drones that deliver our groceries and yet this ancient disease, this disease that we know can be conquered because it has been conquered in different parts of the world, is still killing so many people. We have the science and the knowledge to beat malaria. It is doable. May we also have the will to do it.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author
Race to elimination
The malaria map is shrinking. Twenty-one countries have eliminated malaria over the last two decades and, of these, 10 countries were officially certified by WHO as malaria free. Countries of the Greater Mekong continue to make major gains, with a staggering 97% reduction in cases of P. falciparum malaria since 2000 – a great achievement given the ongoing threat from antimalarial drug resistance. The global goal to eliminate malaria from at least 35 countries by 2030 is within our reach. But as the malaria parasite evolves and drug resistance increases, we must develop more innovative tools and approaches.
© UNDP Bolivia /Miguel Samper
Targeting geographies at risk
In places on the cusp of elimination, the Global Fund supports approaches that focus control activities in targeted geographic areas or for specific, high-risk populations. Enhanced case finding is resource intensive – requiring identifying and following up with every case, including family or community members who also might have been exposed. But it is essential to interrupting malaria transmission and achieving elimination. The investment to eliminate malaria will pay dividends beyond one disease, by alleviating a significant burden on resource-constrained health systems.
Community awareness and action
Global Fund partners work with communities in malaria-endemic areas to provide information about what malaria is, how it is transmitted, what treatments are available, and, most importantly, what actions to take if malaria is suspected. In Ghana, for example, village elders teach their community “not to let the sun set twice” on a child with fever. In many countries, malaria prevention lessons are added to the school curriculum. In Senegal, community health workers are a critical force in the fight to eliminate malaria, particularly in hard-to-reach rural villages.
The Global Fund / Vincent Becker
Meet a malaria crusader
Elhadj Diop became a malaria crusader in Senegal after the heartbreaking death of his daughter Ami nearly 20 years ago. “Ami’s death was a very difficult situation, because we didn’t know about this disease at that time. But it was at that moment I said, ‘I have a mission.’ It means reaching out to people, informing them about this disease and asking them to change their behavior. Elhadj Diop can’t fight it alone. It’s everyone, the whole village, the whole community.”