New Delhi, Dec 4 || Malaria infected an estimated 282 million people and claimed 6,10,000 lives worldwide in 2024, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual World Malaria Report on Thursday, which highlighted drug resistance as a major threat to elimination efforts.
While the WHO-recommended vaccines helped to prevent an estimated 170 million cases and one million deaths in 2024, this was roughly 9 million more than the previous year.
An estimated 95 per cent of these deaths were in the African Region, with most occurring among children under 5.
India accounted for 73.3 per cent of all cases in the WHO South-East Asia Region. The country also reported 88.7 per cent per cent of all deaths in the region.
The report showed that progress in reducing the malaria deaths -- a key target of the Global Technical Strategy for malaria 2016-2030 -- remains far off track.