World Malaria Day is an international observance commemorated every year on April 25th to recognize progress made in the fight against malaria. It was established in 2001 as “Africa Malaria Day,” one year after the signing of the Abuja Declaration to Roll Back Malaria. This year’s theme was “End Malaria for Good.”
Malaria control and elimination efforts over the past 16 years have saved nearly 7 million lives, leading to US$2 trillion in benefits to malaria-affected countries. However, malaria still remains a daily risk to half the world’s population. Malaria control and elimination has proven itself to be one of the most valuable investments in global health, and with continued concerted efforts, we can be the generation that ends malaria for good.
The fight against malaria has experienced great progress in recent years, but challenges remain:
- Since 2000, global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have brought down malaria mortality rates by 62 percent worldwide and by 69 percent in children under five years old.
- Steady declines in mortality and incidence rates have averted about 1.3 billion malaria cases and saved about 6.8 million lives since 2001.
- In 2015, there were an estimated 212 million cases of malaria – a 21% decrease since 2000 – and 429,000 malaria deaths.
- While cases have fallen by 22% since 2000 and 14% since 2010, the number of malaria cases remained the same in 2015 as in 2014.
- 92% of all malaria deaths and 90% of cases occurred in Africa; 70% of global deaths (303,000) occurred in children under five.
This year, the global health and development community reflected on sustained progress over the past 16 years and looked ahead to the renewed focus needed to finally end malaria worldwide.
Groundbreaking research and development has played a crucial role in reducing the global malaria burden. For World Malaria Day 2017, our clients focused on key investments to advance scientific discovery and help develop new – and improve existing – tools to accelerate progress against the disease.
To help our clients tell their story, our teams assisted in the strategic research, development and execution of World Malaria Day materials and activities.
