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Header photo The Global Fund/Sarah Hoibak

Malaria

The Challenge

The fight against malaria is one of humanity’s most significant public health successes. Great progress was made in malaria control over the last two decades, resulting in a reduction in overall cases and deaths. But that progress stalled around 2018, and the COVID-19 pandemic has knocked us further off track.

Funding has plateaued, drug and insecticide resistance are increasing, and climate change threatens to push malaria transmission into new regions. Disruptions to malaria services caused by COVID-19 led to an increase in malaria deaths and cases. In 2021 there were an estimated 247 million cases of malaria and 619,000 malaria deaths worldwide; compared to 2019, there were about 15 million more cases and 51,000 more deaths.

More than ever before, the Global Fund needs to support countries in their efforts to revitalize and sustain the fight against malaria. We must strive to provide better and more equitable access to all health services, vastly increase funding for malaria programs, invest in new approaches and innovations and improve use of existing tools. If we do not increase investment in fighting malaria, we must accept that we are effectively abandoning the 2030 goal to end the disease as a public health threat.

Malaria by the Numbers:

Funding

  • The Global Fund provides 65% of all international financing for malaria programs.
  • We have invested more than US$17.9 billion in malaria control programs as of June 2023.
  • Since January 2021, we have increased malaria grants by 23% on average.

Prevention

  • 220 million mosquito nets distributed to protect families from malaria in 2022.
  • 8.5 million structures covered by indoor residual spraying in 2022.
  • 37.1 million children covered by seasonal malaria chemoprevention in 2022.
  • 14.6 million pregnant women received preventive therapy for malaria in 2022.

Testing and Treatment

  • 321 million suspected cases of malaria tested in 2022.
  • 165 million cases of malaria treated in 2022.

Read more about Malaria in our Results Report

See more Malaria Data on the Data Explorer

Our Response

The Global Fund provides 65% of all international financing for malaria programs and has invested more than US$17.9 billion in malaria control programs as of June 2023. These investments are making an impact. In countries where the Global Fund invests, malaria deaths have dropped by 27% between 2002 and 2021. Without these interventions, malaria deaths would have increased by 91% over the same period.

Select:

With malaria control (actual)
If there had been no malaria control

Trends in malaria deaths

Trends in malaria cases

Malaria burden estimates and estimation of “no malaria control” from WHO Global Malaria Program, 2022 release. Global Fund portfolio indicates countries where the Global Fund invests.

Testing and Treatment

Timely testing and treatment of malaria is fundamental to preventing deaths. The Global Fund works with partners to support the delivery of good quality, people-centered health services at public and private facilities and at the community level. Our partners also work with communities in malaria-endemic areas to provide information about what malaria is, how it is transmitted, how to prevent it, and, most importantly, what actions to take if malaria is suspected.

The more than 2 million community health workers in the countries where the Global Fund invests are a critical force in the fight to eliminate malaria, particularly in hard-to-reach rural villages. Community health workers lead outreach campaigns that raise awareness in communities about lifesaving prevention methods so people at risk for malaria can take full advantage of them.

Prevention

Malaria prevention underpins malaria control efforts and is the most effective way to dramatically reduce cases and deaths. The Global Fund invests in multiple new and existing tools to prevent malaria. These include insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, and seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) for children under 5, all of which are most often distributed through large-scale campaigns.

The Global Fund and Unitaid are each investing US$33 million from 2018 through 2022, and the Global Fund will invest an additional US$50 million through the end of 2024, to support evidence gathering and market entry of new types of insecticide-treated nets to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The nets are treated with two insecticides and can kill mosquitos that are resistant to one of the two insecticides. Children under 5, who are most vulnerable to illness and death from malaria, will experience the most direct health benefits.

In October 2021, WHO issued a recommendation on the use of the RTS,S malaria vaccine. Building on the existing clinical evidence, the Global Fund, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Unitaid funded pilots of the introduction of the vaccine through routine immunization programs in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The pilots demonstrated a 30% reduction in severe malaria when introduced in areas with wide use of insecticide-treated nets and good access to malaria diagnosis and treatment.

In the hardest-hit countries across the Sahel, the Global Fund supports the rollout of SMC campaigns, a cost-effective and targeted intervention for young children that can reduce malaria cases by more than 50%. Despite the difficulties in implementation related to COVID-19, the countries we support increased the number of children covered through SMC in 2021 to a total of over 34 million, largely in West Africa, an increase of 7.8 million compared to 2020.

Successes in fighting drug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong region show that a well-funded joint effort works. The Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) – the Global Fund’s largest regional grant – was launched in 2013 in response to the emergence of drug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong region. The Global Fund is investing more than US$680 million through this initiative to accelerate malaria elimination as a bulwark against drug resistance. It is working: Malaria cases have dropped from 650,000 in 2012 to 82,000 in 2020.

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Read the Latest Results Report

Learn More

Published: 12 September 2022

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