610,000 Die Worldwide From Malaria in 2024 Driven by Increased Drug Resistance, Climate Change, and Funding Gaps
As drug resistance increased and gaps in prevention and treatment funding widened, Malaria killed about 610,000 people worldwide in 2024, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday. The global 2024 death toll rose slightly from 2023 as global cases climbed.
An estimated 282 million people became infected with the mosquito-borne disease last year, up from 273 million in 2023, according to the WHO’s annual malaria report. After sharp gains in the early 2000s, progress against the disease has slowed over the past decade.
“Too many people are still dying from a preventable and curable disease,” said Daniel Ngamije Madandi, director of the WHO’s global malaria program.
The rate of infection grew the fastest in Ethiopia, Madagascar and Yemen in 2024, the WHO said. While 47 countries now are certified malaria-free, other regions have been steadily backsliding over the lst decade.
Drug resistance is now undermining first-line treatments in several countries. Mosquitoes also are becoming more resistant to insecticides used in some bed nets. Climate change is altering rainfall and heat patterns that are expanding mosquito habitats. Armed conflict is also disrupting health services and delaying diagnosis and treatment.
The WHO said population growth also drove part of the rise in infections. Yet the broader malaria rate also climbed. From 2015 to 2024, the rate of infection rose from 59 to 64 per 100,000 people at risk. Death rates fell only slightly over the same period.
Funding gaps have also increased the risk of infection. Total global spending on malaria control was USD 3.9 billion in 2024 from donors and affected countries combined. But the global target is more than USD 9 billion.
The data do not yet reflect the impact of the new cuts to international aid by the United States that began in January this year. Those cuts are already straining malaria programs in several high-burden countries.
“The underfunding of the malaria response poses an obvious risk, a massive and uncontrolled resurgence of disease,” Ngamije said.
New tools offer a path forward. The WHO said better treatments, rapid tests, and malaria vaccines have already saved millions of lives. However, their impact going forward depends on them reaching the most vulnerable people in the high-risk areas. The actions of governments in affected countries and international donors are now the drivers of whether global malaria deaths will continue to rise in the years ahead.