Deaths from malaria have fallen by more than 25% globally and by more than 33% in the WHO African Region in the past decade, according to the World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report 2011. Last year there were 109 countries and territories with endemic malaria, and they had an estimated 216 million cases of malaria, of which 81% were in the WHO Africa Region.
The estimated number of malaria mortalities in 2010 was 655,000, down from 619,000 in 2009. The number of bed nets delivered to sub-Saharan Africa increased from 88 million in 2009 to 145 million in 2010. It is estimated that 50% of households now have at least one bed net, and 96% of them use it. Some 88 million rapid diagnostic tests were delivered in 2010, up from 45 million in 2008. 181 million courses of artemisinin-based combination therapies were procured in 2010, up from 11 million in 2005.
However, the $2 billion made available for malaria control in 2010 is well short of the $5 to 6 billion required each year to achieve global malaria targets. On present projections, available funds are likely to decrease to $1.5 billion by 2015, threatening the progress that has been made. There are growing signs of resistance to artemisinins, and mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticides used to control them.