This edition of the World Malaria Report summarizes the
current status of malaria control worldwide. It reviews progress
towards internationally agreed goals and targets, and
describes trends in funding, intervention coverage and
malaria cases and deaths. In 2013, there are 97 countries and territories with ongoing
malaria transmission, and 6 countries in the prevention of reintroduction
phase, making a total of 103 countries and territories
in which malaria is presently considered endemic. Globally,
an estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria. WHO estimates
that 207 million cases of malaria occurred globally in 2012
(uncertainty range 135?287 million) and 627 000 deaths (uncertainty
range 473 000?789 000). Most cases (80%) and deaths (90%) occurred in Africa, and
most deaths (77%) were in children under 5 years of age.
The World Malaria Report presents a critical analysis and interpretation
of data provided by national malaria control programmes
(NMCPs) in endemic countries. Standard reporting forms were
sent in April 2013 to the 97 countries with ongoing malaria
transmission, and to 5 of the countries that recently entered the
prevention of reintroduction phase. Information was requested
on (i) populations at risk; (ii) vector species; (iii) number of cases,
admissions and deaths for each parasite species; (iv) completeness
of outpatient reporting; (v) policy implementation; (vi)
commodities distributed and interventions undertaken; (vii)
results of household surveys; and (viii) malaria financing.
Table 1.2 summarizes the percentage of countries responding
by month and by WHO region in 2012.
Information from household surveys was used to complement
data submitted by NMCPs, notably the demographic and health
surveys (DHS), multiple indicator cluster surveys (MICS) and
malaria indicator surveys (MIS). These surveys provide information
on the percentage of the population that sleeps under a
mosquito net, and the percentage of children with fever who are
treated and the medication they receive. Information on malaria
financing was obtained from the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) database on foreign
aid flows, and directly from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) and the US President?s
Malaria Initiative (PMI).
Data were analysed by WHO staff at headquarters and regional
offices, with extensive consultation with WHO country offices
and NMCPs regarding the interpretation of country information.
Assistance in data analysis and interpretation was also provided
by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), the Child Health
Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG), the Institute of Health
Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Malaria Atlas Projectthe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
the Global Fund.
The following chapters consider the policies and interventions
recommended by WHO, the implementation of interventions,
and the impact of these interventions on malaria cases and
deaths, from a global and a regional perspective.
Chapter 2 summarizes the WHO policy-setting process and the
policies and strategies recommended by WHO to achieve the
internationally agreed goals for malaria control and elimination.
It describes the goals and targets for malaria control and elimination,
and recommended indicators of progress.
Chapter 3 reviews recent trends in international and domestic
financing in relation to the resource requirements for meeting
global malaria control targets. It examines the distribution of
malaria funding by WHO region, by gross national income (GNI)
per capita and by malaria mortality rate of a country. It also
reviews endemic countries? willingness to pay for malaria control.
Chapter 4 reviews the commodity needs for malaria vector
control. It considers the policies that national programmes have
adopted for vector control implementation, and the progress
made towards universal access to ITNs and IRS. An update is
provided on the growing problem of insecticide resistance, and
the appropriate monitoring and management of resistance.
Chapter 5 reviews progress in implementation of chemoprevention,
particularly the intermittent preventive treatment of
malaria in pregnancy and in infants, and the introduction of
seasonal chemoprevention in older children. It also reports on
the current status of malaria vaccine development.
Chapter 6 reviews the commodity needs for malaria diagnostic
testing and treatment. It reports on the extent to which national
programmes have adopted policies for universal diagnostic
testing of suspected malaria cases, and examines trends in the
availability of parasitological testing. It also reviews the adoption
of policies and implementation of programmes for improving
access to effective treatment for malaria. Finally, this chapter
reports on progress in the withdrawal of oral artemisinin-based
monotherapies from the market, the current status of drug efficacy
monitoring, recent trends in antimalarial drug resistance
and efforts to contain artemisinin resistance.
Chapter 7 examines the extent to which data are available for
monitoring progress towards international targets, and how this
has changed since 2000.
Chapter 8 reviews trends in reported malaria cases for 62 countries
that have reported consistently between 2000 and 2012.
For countries with low numbers of cases, it summarizes their
progress towards elimination. This chapter also presents an analysis
of the estimated numbers of cases and deaths for countries
with ongoing transmission between 2000 and 2012.
Regional profiles are provided. These summarize the epidemiology
of malaria in each WHO region, trends in malaria case
incidence, and the links between malaria trends and malaria
Country profiles are also provided for countries with ongoing