NEWS: WHO releases new malaria report

15 December 2009
London, 15 December 2009: International funding for malaria has increased dramatically from US$35 million in 2000 to $652 million in 2007, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) released today.

The 2009 WHO World Malaria Report monitors the global response to malaria and includes the latest figures on coverage with bed-nets and treatment in Africa and impact since 2000.

According to the report, 31% of African households are estimated to own at least one insecticide-treated net compared to just 17% in 2006. However, although more artemisinin-based combination therapy treatments (ACTs) are being procured, government health  centres in malaria endemic countries are only receiving about 50% of the ACTs needed to treat malaria cases, and use of ACTs remains very low in African countries.

Malaria Consortium Executive Director, Sunil Mehra, said “We are delighted with the increases in ownership of nets and procurement of ACTs and welcome the additional finance for malaria control. But we are concerned that the percentage of children using a net is still below the 80% WHA target and that the funds available for malaria control still fall short of the $5 billion required annually.”

The report contains individual country profiles for 33 high burden countries, a summary of policies, strategies, and targets for malaria control that are recommended by WHO.

Of particular interest is the reference in the report to parasite resistance to ACTs and mosquito resistance to insecticides. These are major threats to achieving global malaria control and continued surveillance of drug efficacy in endemic countries is crucial. Evidence of resistance to artemisinin in South East Asia has led to a major resistance containment effort led by WHO and supported by Malaria Consortium among others. The World Malaria report points out that continued use of artemisinin monotherapy is a major factor in parasite resistance, yet despite WHO’s call for a halt to their use, marketing of artemisinin monotherapies continues in many countries.

Other key findings in the report include:

• The number of people protected by indoor residual spraying of insecticides in Africa increased from less than 10 million in 2001 to 59 million in 2008.
• More than one-third of the 108 malaria-endemic countries (nine within and 29 outside Africa) documented reductions in malaria cases of greater than 50% in 2008 compared to 2000.

For more information, please contact Diana Thomas on 020 7549 0254 [email protected]

Other materials of interest:

• A one page fact sheet on the report
• WHO's press release