World Malaria Day

World Malaria Day, annual observance held on April 25 to raise awareness of the global effort to control and ultimately eradicate malaria. World Malaria Day, which was first held in 2008, developed from Africa Malaria Day, an event that had been observed since 2001 by African governments. The observance served as a time to assess progress toward goals aimed at controlling malaria and reducing its mortality in African countries. In 2007, at the 60th session of the World Health Assembly (a meeting sponsored by the World Health Organization [WHO]), it was proposed that Africa Malaria Day be changed to World Malaria Day to recognize the existence of malaria in countries worldwide and to bring greater awareness to the global fight against the disease.

Malaria exists in more than 100 countries worldwide, and some 900,000 people die from the disease each year. However, malaria is preventable with the use of medicines and other precautionary measures, such as insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying. On the first World Malaria Day the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, emphasized the need to increase the availability of bed nets, medicines, public health facilities, and trained health workers to people in areas of the world affected by malaria. Ban challenged global initiative programs, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, by stating that he expected such universal access to be in place by the end of 2010.

Ban’s call for action prompted the formation of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), an aggressive unified strategy designed to reduce the incidence of malaria worldwide. The three components of this strategy are control, elimination, and research. Research to develop new drugs and new approaches to prevention is fundamental to efforts aimed at first controlling and then eliminating malaria from areas severely affected by the disease. The long-term goal of the plan was global eradication of the disease by 2015. However, progress toward this goal slowed significantly because of inadequate funding and health care, particularly in difficult-to-reach areas, which had the highest proportion of cases. By 2019, infection rates in places with the greatest malaria burden remain largely unchanged, and an analysis of global trends in malaria incidence suggested that eradication could be achieved by 2050.

In addition to bringing together international agencies and research institutions to discuss the progress of the GMAP, World Malaria Day also provides health organizations and scientists with an opportunity to communicate information about the disease and about current research efforts to the public. This is accomplished through public educational programs, charity events, and other community activities.