It’s been thousands of years and malaria still remains detrimental to health. Unlike the initial centuries when malaria had no known treatment or cure, malaria is now both treatable and preventable. In spite of this, many lives are still lost to it, especially in remote communities. Notwithstanding, the fight against malaria is being pursued more than ever. The goal is to have no incidence of malaria globally especially in the tropical regions where high prevalence is recorded.
World Malaria Day is celebrated on 25th April every year to place a spotlight on the status of malaria and get support for the efforts being made to control and prevent its incidence. The main focus is total elimination of malaria. One such campaign to achieve this is Zero Malaria Starts with Me which empowers various communities plighted with malaria to have a stake in the fight to end malaria.

This year’s theme for the 16th World Malaria Day is “Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement”. Here are some snippets of Dr. Matshidiso Moeti’s (WHO Regional Director for Africa) message about the current status of malaria in the African region as we mark the day:

- In 2021 it killed 619 000 people, of whom approximately 96% lived in Africa.
- It is 6-20 times more likely to spread in mosquito-prone environments than the Omicron variant of sars-cov-2.
- In Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, where nearly 1.5 million children have received the vaccine through a WHO-coordinated pilot programme, there is a substantial decrease in hospitalizations for severe malaria and a drop in child deaths.
- In terms of reduction in malaria incidence, eight countries are on track to meet the 2025 Global Technical Strategy target (Ghana inclusive)
- The WHO African Region alone bears the heaviest burden of over 95% of cases and 96% of deaths globally.
- Nearly 30% of the population in most African countries cannot access essential health services, and most people face unacceptably high expenditures on health care.
- About 80% of malaria cases and deaths occur in children under five
Moving forward, she mentioned these as useful measures:
- Fighting against malaria vectors will require multisectoral actions and the involvement of decentralized administrative units and communities to sustain behavioural change and uptake of these tools.
- Malaria programmes should be decentralized to the district and community levels where health systems are closest to the affected populations.
- We must empower frontline health workers and communities to participate fully in identifying key barriers in accessing services, ensure effective implementation of malaria control strategies and hold their leaders accountable for health outcomes.
- Governments need to mobilize more resources and technical capacities at domestic and international levels and build effective partnerships and multisectoral mechanisms to help strengthen preventive measures and improve coverage of malaria case management services.