Despite saving one million lives in 2024 through vaccines and new preventive tools, WHO warns that rising antimalarial drug resistance and funding gaps threaten global malaria progress

A dramatic scale-up of new malaria prevention and treatment tools has helped save an estimated one million lives and prevent 170 million malaria cases in 2024, according to the World Malaria Report 2025 released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, the agency warns that gains remain fragile as drug resistance rises, funding pressures intensify, and malaria transmission in parts of Africa continues to surge.
The WHO report highlights that wider deployment of dual-ingredient insecticide-treated nets, malaria vaccines, and expanded seasonal malaria chemoprevention drove some of the strongest global gains seen in years.
 

Since the first malaria vaccines were approved in 2021, 24 countries have introduced them into their routine immunization programmes, gradually integrating these tools into national health systems. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention, initially limited to a few pilot districts, has expanded dramatically and now reaches 54 million children across 20 countries, compared to just 200,000 children in 2012.

These advances have played a crucial role in reducing severe illness and deaths among vulnerable populations, particularly young children.
Malaria elimination momentum also continued. By the end of 2025, 47 countries and one territory had been certified malaria-free. Recent certifications include Cabo Verde and Egypt (2024) and Georgia, Suriname and Timor-Leste (2025).
 

Despite this progress, the global burden remains high. In 2024, the world recorded an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 deaths — about nine million more cases than the year before.
 

The WHO African Region continues to carry a disproportionate share of the burden, accounting for 95 per cent of malaria deaths, with the vast majority occurring among children under five. This persistent vulnerability underscores the need for sustained surveillance, improved access to care, and continued roll-out of vaccines and preventive therapies.
 

The report raises serious concerns about the spread of partial resistance to artemisinin, the cornerstone drug for treating malaria after earlier medicines like chloroquine became ineffective.
 

Evidence of confirmed or suspected artemisinin resistance has now emerged in at least eight African countries, alongside early signs that partner drugs used in combination therapies may also be losing efficacy.
 

This growing resistance “stands in the way of achieving malaria elimination,” the report warns, signalling an urgent need for new therapeutics, intensified monitoring, and investment in research.
 

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO called for renewed urgency, “New tools for prevention of malaria are giving us new hope, but we still face significant challenges. Increasing numbers of cases and deaths, the growing threat of drug resistance and the impact of funding cuts all threaten to roll back the progress we have made over the past two decades. However, none of these challenges is insurmountable.”
 

Progress toward the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016 to 2030 remains far off-track. The world is aiming for a reduction to 4.5 deaths per 100,000 population, but current mortality stands at 13.8 deaths per 100,000 — more than three times the target.