Worldwide, 608,000 people died from malaria in 2022.
Caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquito bites, symptoms of malaria include fever, chills, headache, fatigue, yellowing of the eyes and skin, convulsions and difficulty breathing.
The theme for this year’s World Malaria Day is “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a fairer world”.
According to the “World Malaria Report 2023”, published in November last year by the World Health Organization, which defines malaria as a “treatable and preventable disease”, in 2022, 249 million cases of malaria were detected in the world and 608 thousand people died from the disease.
Children under 5 years of age, the group most vulnerable to the disease, represent 76% of malaria deaths worldwide.
In Africa, which represents around 94% of all cases globally, 233 million people were diagnosed with malaria in 2022, while more than 50% of global cases were recorded in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Mozambique, where the epidemic was most severe.
Around 2% of malaria cases worldwide were registered in Southeast Asia, of which 66% of diagnoses were registered in India.
A 25% increase in malaria cases in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2021-2022 was explained by 2.1 million people contracting malaria in Pakistan following floods that affected 30 million people.
In the Americas, 73% of the almost 600,000 cases were detected in Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia.
Malaria has not been diagnosed in Europe since 2015, with Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and the Central American country Belize being added to the list of malaria-free countries in 2023.
In Türkiye, with the efforts of the Ministry of Health, malaria infection in the national territory was eliminated and, since 2010, only cases originating from abroad have been detected.
The WHO recommends the use of medicated mosquito nets to protect against mosquitoes carrying the parasite in areas with a high risk of malaria transmission, the use of health institutions if malaria is suspected, and the use of malaria vaccines during the process. of treatment.
