♦ Malaria killed around 610,000 people in 2024, mostly young children in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization said on 4 December 2025.

♦ The toll was a slight increase from the number of deaths in 2023, and case numbers also went up, from 273 million to an estimated 282 million, according to the WHO’s annual malaria report.

♦ After vast progress in the early 2000s, the fight against malaria has been stalling in the last decade. While 47 countries have been certified as malaria-free, others are seeing a jump in cases – in 2024, particularly Ethiopia, Madagascar and Yemen.

♦ The rise in cases and deaths is in part linked to population growth, but case incidence – which accounts for that – also grew in the period 2015-2024, the WHO said, from 59 to 64 cases per 100,000 people at risk. Mortality rates have declined, but only slightly, from 14.9 to 13.8 per 100,000 people at risk.