Key messages

This year, WHO and other partners are marking World Malaria Day by celebrating the achievements of countries that are approaching, and achieving,malaria elimination. They provide inspiration for all nations that are working to stamp out this deadly disease and improve the health and livelihoods of their populations.

This communications toolkit contains key messaging and other resources which can be used around World Malaria Day 2021 to support your activities and outreach.

In 2019, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria and 409 000 malaria-related deaths in 87 countries. Children under the age of 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa continued to account for approximately two thirds of global deaths from malaria.

The WHO African Region shouldered 94% of all malaria cases and deaths worldwide in 2019. More than half of all cases were in 5 countries: Nigeria (27% of cases), Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), Mozambique (4%) and Niger (5%).

About 3% per cent of malaria cases in 2019 were reported in the WHO South-East Asia Region and 2% in the WHO Region for the Eastern Mediterranean. The WHO Western Pacific Region and the WHO Region of the Americas each accounted for fewer than 1% of all cases.

Between 2000 and 2019, the number of countries with fewer than 100 indigenous malaria cases – a strong indicator that malaria elimination is within reach – increased from 6 to 27. Over this same period of time:

• 21 countries reported at least 3 consecutive years of zero indigenous malaria cases;
• 10 of these countries were certified malaria-free by WHO: United Arab Emirates (2007), Morocco (2010), Turkmenistan (2010), Armenia (2011), Kyrgyzstan (2016), Sri Lanka (2016), Uzbekistan (2018), Paraguay (2018), Argentina (2019) and Algeria (2019).

In February 2021, El Salvador became the first country in Central America to be certified malaria-free by WHO following 50 years of steady commitment by the Government and its people to ending the disease.

China, a country that reported more than 30 million cases of malaria annually in the 1940s, registered zero indigenous cases in 2016, and has stayed at zero to this date. China applied for the WHO malaria-free certification in 2020.

In the face of the dual threat of antimalarial drug resistance and COVID-19, countries of the Greater Mekong subregion have made major gains towards their goal of malaria elimination by 2030.  

For the period 2000 to 2020, the 6 countries of the subregion – Cambodia, China (Yunnan Province), Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam – reported a 97% reduction in malaria cases. There were an estimated 15 malaria-related deaths in these 6 countries in 2020 compared to 6000 deaths in the year 2000 – a reduction of more than 99%.