“Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world”

In recent years, progress in reducing malaria has ground to a standstill. Not only does malaria continue to directly endanger health and cost lives, but it also perpetuates a vicious cycle of inequity. People living in the most vulnerable situations including pregnant women, infants, children under 5 years of age, refugees, migrants, internally displaced people, and Indigenous Peoples continue to be disproportionately impacted.

The WHO African Region shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease – accounting, in 2022, for 94% and 95% of malaria case and deaths. Rural populations in the African region living in situations of poverty and with less access to education are the most impacted. In view of the current trajectory, critical 2025 milestones of the WHO global malaria strategy for reductions in malaria cases and deaths will be missed.

Why are pregnant women, young children and other groups in vulnerable situations not accessing the malaria services they need? On World Malaria Day 2024, WHO joins the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and other partners in highlighting barriers to health equity, gender equality and human rights in malaria responses worldwide – as well as concrete measures to overcome them.

608 000
malaria deaths
in 2022

249 million
new cases of malaria
in 2022

94%
of all malaria cases
are in WHO African Region

1519 – Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America.

1547 – Charles V’s troops defeated the Protestant League of Schmalkalden at the battle of Muhlburg.

1558 – Mary, Queen of Scotland, married the French dauphin, Francis.

1800 – The Library of Congress was established with a $5,000 allocation.

1805 – The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.

1833 – A patent was granted for first soda fountain.

1877 – Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

1877 – In the U.S., federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans. This was the end to the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.

1884 – Otto von Bismarck cabled Cape Town that South Africa was now a German colony.

1889 – The Edison General Electric Company was organized.

1897 – William Price became the first to be named White House news reporter.

1898 – Spain declared war on the U.S., rejecting America’s ultimatum for Spain to withdraw from Cuba.

1915 – During World War I, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians.

1916 – Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rebellion against British occupation forces. They were overtaken several days later.

1944 – The first B-29 arrived in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.

1952 – Raymond Burr made his TV acting debut on the “Gruen Guild Playhouse” in an episode titled, “The Tiger.”

1953 – Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1955 – “X-Minus One,” a science fiction show, was first heard for the first time on NBC radio.

1961 – Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18 batters becoming the first major-league pitcher to do so on two different occasions.

1961 – U.S. President Kennedy accepted “sole responsibility” following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

1962 – MIT sent a TV signal by satellite for the first time.

1967 – Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov died when his craft crashed with a tangled parachute.

1967 – The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts.

1970 – The People’s Republic of China launched its first satellite.

1973 – Albert Sabin reported that herpesviruses were factors in nine kinds of cancer.

1989 – Thousands of students began striking in Beijing.

1990 – The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

1997 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons.

2000 – ABC-TV aired the TV movie “The Three Stooges.”

2003 – A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.

2015 – The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high of 5092.09.

2015 – The S&P closed at a record high of 2117.69.