Governments have promised to end malaria by 2030. With around five and a half years left to eliminate the vector-borne disease worldwide, it is alarming that progress is off the mark.

More worrying is that whatever progress has happened towards ending malaria, can be reversed. Without adequate science-backed and strategic investments and actions, how will countries that have ended malaria, keep the burden below the elimination levels? Climate change worsens the crisis as disease patterns shift.

We cannot divorce equity and inclusion from malaria response. And we cannot dislocate #endMalaria goals from other SDGs for sustainable elimination of the disease worldwide “where no one is left behind.”

“Even if it is hard and difficult, and even if it is not ‘popular’, we need to keep remaining inclusive and equitable in our approaches towards ending malaria. We need to uphold gender equity, social inclusiveness, disability rights and inclusion, because if we focus on health equity and inclusion, it is doing justice to #HealthForAll where no one is truly left behind,” said Professor (Dr) Maxine Whittaker, Dean at James Cook University, Australia and Advisor to CSO Platform (www.MalariaFreeMekong.org). She was speaking with CNS Managing Editor Shobha Shukla at the End Malaria Dialogues at World Health Summit Regional Meeting.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Report 2024, there were over 263 million people who suffered because of malaria and over 597,000 who died of it worldwide in 2023. These figures are so disturbing, appalling and unacceptable for a disease which is both preventable and curable.

Not just this: the number of people with malaria disease in 2023 was more than those who had malaria in 2022 (11 million more got malaria in 2023 than those who got in 2022).

Around 95% of malaria deaths occurred in Africa, where many at risk of malaria still lack access to the services they need to prevent, detect and treat the disease.

In Asia and the Pacific region, in terms of number of people with malaria, India has the maximum cases but as a percentage of those with malaria in a population, Papua New Guinea has the highest prevalence.

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