World Malaria Report 2014 Released!

The World Health Organization released the World Malaria Report 2014 in the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament on December 9th, 2014.

Key Findings/ Points:

An estimated 198 million cases of malaria occurred globally in 2013 and the disease
led to 584 000 deaths.
The burden is heaviest in the WHO African Region, where an estimated 90% of all malaria deaths occur, and in children aged under 5 years, who account for 78% of all deaths.
In 2013, almost half of the population at risk (49%, range 44–54%) had access to an insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN) in their household, compared to 3% in 2004.
An estimated 44% (range 39–48%) of the population at risk were sleeping under an ITN in 2013, compared to 2% in 2004.
Pregnant women and children were more likely than the general population to sleep under an ITN.
In the WHO African region, the population at risk protected by Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) has declined from 11% (2010) to 7% (2013) due to a withdrawal or downsizing of spraying programmes in some countries.
The most commonly reported resistance (49 out of 63 reporting countries since 2010) is to pyrethroids, the most frequently used insecticide in malaria vector control.
The total number of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) distributed by national malaria control programmes increased from fewer than 200 000 in 2005 to more than 160 million in 2013. 83% of these were distributed in the WHO African Region.
In 2013, the number of patients tested by microscopic examination remained unchanged from the previous year, at 197 million. Of these, India accounted for over 120 million slide examinations.
As of November 2014, only eight countries allow the marketing of artemisinin-based
oral monotherapies. However, 24 pharmaceutical companies, mostly in India, continue to market oral monotherapies.
If the annual rate of decrease that has occurred over the past 13 years is maintained, then by 2015 malaria mortality rates are projected to decrease by 55% globally, and by 62% in the WHO African Region.
In children aged under 5 years, by 2015 they are projected to decrease by 61% globally and by 67% in the WHO African Region.
Of the estimated 4.3 million deaths averted between 2001 and 2013, 3.9 million
(92%) were in children aged under 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa. These 3.9 million averted deaths accounted for 20% of the 20 million fewer under 5 deaths that would have occurred between 2001 and 2013 had under-5 mortality rates for 2000 applied for each year between 2001 and 2013.
Thus, reductions in malaria deaths have contributed substantially to progress towards achieving the target for MDG 4, which is to reduce, by two thirds, the under-5 mortality rate between 1990 and 2015.