Malaria Deaths Fall 60% Since 2000 As New Vaccine Reaches 12 Countries

The WHO says targeted mosquito-net programs and the R21 vaccine have prevented an estimated 12 million child deaths across sub-Saharan Africa.

New data from the World Health Organization confirm that global malaria deaths have fallen by 60 percent since 2000, with the sharpest drops in sub-Saharan Africa.

The decline is credited to insecticide-treated mosquito nets, targeted indoor spraying, and the rollout of the R21 vaccine — the second licensed anti-malaria vaccine — now reaching twelve African countries.

Nigeria and Uganda, which together account for nearly a quarter of global cases, have seen year-on-year reductions of over 20 percent since vaccination campaigns began in 2024.

Community health workers, many trained by NGOs in partnership with local ministries, have been central to distributing bednets in remote villages. Nigeria alone deployed over 40 million nets in the last two years.

The report cautions that funding uncertainty could slow further progress. But researchers say the trajectory is now clear enough that malaria elimination in some regions is no longer implausible within twenty years.

"For most of human history, malaria was a fixed feature of childhood mortality," one WHO official told reporters. "That is no longer the case in most of the countries where it used to be endemic."

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