As the world moves from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is important that the fight against malaria continues, the health agency stated.

WHO’s Achieving the malaria Millennium Development Goals target report stated that the global malaria death rate had fallen by 60% since 2000 when the MDGs were adopted, however, the infection remains an acute public health problem in many poor regions.

Between 2000 and 2015, the rate of new malaria infections declined globally by an estimated 37%. The fastest decreases were seen in the Caucasus and Central Asia, which reported zero cases in 2014, and in Eastern Asia.

However, WHO estimated that in 2015, 214 million malaria cases and 438,000 deaths were reported. Nine out of ten cases and deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

To combat this public health problem, the World Health Assembly last year adopted the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria, a new 15-year road map for malaria control. The target aims to reduce global malaria incidence and mortality by 2030 by a further 90%, it said.

“This target can only be achieved with political will, country leadership and significantly increased investment,” WHO said.

“Annual funding for malaria will need to triple – from $2.7bn today to $8.7bn in 2030.”

WHO has identified funding requirements to meet the targets and milestones for 2020, 2025 and 2030 – which are: $6.4bn by 2020, $7.7bn by 2025 and $8.7bn by 2030.

“If these resources can be secured, and malaria programmes implemented, the malaria landscape will change even more dramatically than it has over the past 15 years, and malaria will become a thing of the past for many populations in the world,” the report said.