Two countries, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo, accounted for more than 35 percent of global malaria deaths in 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) World Malaria Report 2015 has said.
According to the report, which was released on Wednesday and made available to the Ghana News Agency by Fadela Chaib, WHO Communications Officer, globally the number of malaria cases fell from an estimated 262 million in 2000 to 214 million in 2015.
It said globally, the number of malaria deaths fell from an estimated 839 000 in 2000 to 438 000 in 2015.
The report indicated that among children under five, the estimated number of malaria deaths globally fell from 723 000 in 2000 to 306 000 in 2015.
It noted that the bulk of this decrease occurred in the WHO African Region; declaring that most malaria cases (88 per cent) and deaths (90 per cent) occurred in the WHO African Region in 2015.
The WHO South-East Asia Region accounted for 10 per cent of global malaria cases and seven per cent of deaths in 2015.
The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region accounted for two per cent of global malaria cases and two per cent of deaths in 2015.
The report recounted that in 2014, 16 countries reported zero indigenous cases of malaria: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Iraq, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Oman, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. Seventeen countries are reporting fewer than 1000 cases of malaria.
The World Malaria Report, released each year in December, is WHO’s flagship malaria publication.
The report offers an in-depth analysis of trends in malaria control and elimination at global, regional and country levels.
It is developed in collaboration with WHO regional and country offices, Ministries of Health in endemic countries, and a broad range of partners.
This year’s report draws on data from the 96 countries and territories with ongoing malaria transmission, and from five countries that have recently eliminated malaria.
Source: GNA
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