This is contained in a report entitled: “Eliminating Malaria”, released on Monday, April 25, on World Malaria Day, observed every year on April 25.
It stated that in 2015 alone, 214 million new cases of the disease were reported in 95 countries and no fewer than 400,000 people died of malaria.
The “Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030”, approved by the World Health Assembly in 2015, calls for the elimination of local transmission of malaria in at least ten countries by 2020.
WHO’s estimates showed that 21 countries were in a position to achieve this goal, including six countries in the African Region, where the burden of the disease is heaviest.
It added that the efficacy of the tools that secured the gains against malaria in the early years of this century is now threatened.
The WHO also said that mosquito resistance to insecticides used in nets and indoor residual spraying is growing.
It also warned of parasite resistance to a component of one of the most powerful antimalarial medicines.
It added that further progress against malaria will likely require new tools that do not exist today, and the further refining of new technologies.
