2023 World Malaria Report:
The 2023 World Malaria Report, recently released by the World Health Organization (WHO), sheds light on the alarming malaria situation in India and globally.
Key Highlights of the Report:
- The 2023 World Malaria Report reveals a global surge with an estimated 249 million cases in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
- Covid-19 disruptions, drug resistance, humanitarian crises, and climate change pose threats to the global malaria response.
- Twenty-nine countries accounted for 95% of malaria cases globally.
- Four countries, Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), and Mozambique (4%), accounted for almost half of all malaria cases globally.
- In 2022, India accounted for a staggering 66% of malaria cases in the WHO South-East Asia Region.
- Plasmodium vivax, a protozoal parasite, contributed to almost 46% of cases in the region.
- Despite a 55% reduction in cases since 2015, India remains a significant contributor to the global malaria burden.
- India faces challenges, including a surge in cases in 2023 linked to unseasonal rainfall.
- India and Indonesia accounted for about 94% of all malaria deaths in the WHO South-East Asia Region.
- Africa bears the highest malaria burden, accounting for 94% of cases and 95% of global malaria deaths in 2022.
- The WHO South-East Asia Region, including India, managed to contain malaria over the last two decades, with a 77% reduction in cases and deaths since 2000.
