Malaria Is Still Endemic in 83 Countries

Significant progress has been made in the fight against malaria over the last two decades. According to a new report by the World Health Organization, there were 83 countries in which the disease was still endemic in 2023, down from a total of 108 endemic countries in the year 2000. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of malaria endemic countries decreased from 85 to 83 as a result of Timor-Leste and Saudi Arabia maintaining zero indigenous cases for three consecutive years. The number of deaths have fallen too since the turn of the century, with the WHO estimating the toll at 597,000 last year compared to 897,000 in 2000. 

But there is still a significant amount of work to be done. Cases were up again last year, rising from 249 million in 2022 to 263 million in 2023. Of these, the highest numbers occurred in Nigeria (68,136,000) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (33,141,000). According to the report, the WHO African Region continues to carry the heaviest burden of mortality, accounting for 95 percent of estimated global malaria deaths.

The WHO South-East Asia Region had eight malaria endemic countries in 2023. India reported more than two million cases last year, accounting for half of all cases in the region. It was followed by Indonesia, which had nearly 1.1 million cases. Malaria deaths fell from about 35,000 in 2000 to 6,000 in the South-East Region in 2023 - a drop of 82.9 percent.