LOS ANGELES-With a reported increase of approximately 11 million malaria cases and 600,000 deaths worldwide in 2023, the global malaria control effort is falling alarmingly short of the target. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is calling on governments, particularly those of wealthy countries, to ensure that funds and resources are available to reverse the stagnating trend in global malaria control, especially for the most affected regions and vulnerable populations.
“Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet the disease claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year. The world cannot afford to allow funding gaps to hold back progress.”
“Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet the disease claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year. The world cannot afford to let funding gaps hold back progress,” said Loretta Wong, AHF’s Deputy Director of Global Advocacy and Policy. “Wealthy donor countries must step up and ensure sustained and sufficient funding for malaria prevention and treatment programs to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations – especially children under five, who accounted for more than three-quarters of global malaria-related deaths in 2022. With the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria due to replenish in less than a year, governments must make commitments now to ensure full funding.”
The report makes clear that of the $8.3 billion needed annually to fight malaria, only $4 billion was secured in 2023, leaving a funding gap of $4.3 billion. This shortfall has steadily increased from $2.6 billion in 2019. The lack of resources is hampering the scale-up of life-saving interventions such as vaccines, insecticide-treated bed nets, rapid diagnostic tests and antimalarial drugs. Without immediate action, there is a risk of deepening stagnation, undoing progress made and putting millions of lives at risk, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.”
About the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global nonprofit organization providing advanced healthcare and advocacy to more than 2 million people in 48 countries worldwide in Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. We are currently the largest nonprofit provider of HIV/AIDS medicine in the world. For more information about the AHF, visit our website www.aidshealth.org and on Facebook www.facebook.com/aidshealth and by following us on Twitter @aidshealthcare and Instagram @aidshealthcare .
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Contacts
MEDIENKONTAKT USA:
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications, AHF
+1 323 308 1833 work +1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org
Denys Nazarov, Director of Global Policy & Communications, AHF
+1 323.308.1829
denys.nazarov@aidshealth.org
