Press centre
Malaria
Key facts and figures on malaria:
- Malaria is endemic in 109 countries and territories in tropical and subtropical regions, with sub-Saharan Africa hardest hit. Between 190 million to 330 million cases of clinical malaria occur each year.
- Malaria kills about one million people every year. Approximately 90 per cent of all malaria deaths currently occur in sub-Saharan Africa and most of these deaths are among children under five years of age.
- Malaria is a leading cause of under-five mortality in Africa (18 per cent) and accounts for 40 per cent of public health expenditure.
- Malaria is both treatable, with Artemesinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT), and preventable through insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying.
- UNICEF advocates for the continued integration of malaria control efforts with the delivery of broader, comprehensive, maternal and child health services, such as antenatal care and immunization.
- UNICEF emphasizes the crucial need for community-based and community-led health and development programmes and the role of behaviour change communication in maximising the effectiveness of interventions including mosquito nets and treatment.
- UNICEF calls for an accelerated effort to scale-up malaria control interventions to meet the global 2010 target of 80 per cent coverage in Africa. This increased effort to control malaria will contribute further to the reductions in overall child mortality seen in 2007, especially in Africa.
Updated – May 2009
