With a reported increase of approximately 11 million malaria cases and 600,000 deaths globally in 2023, the global malaria response is trending worryingly off-target. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) calls on governments, particularly wealthy nations, to ensure the funding and resources are available to reverse a stagnated trend in fighting malaria worldwide, particularly for the most affected regions and at-risk populations.

“Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet it continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year. The world cannot afford to let financial gaps stall progress,” said AHF Deputy Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy Loretta Wong. “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 over three-quarters of the global malaria-related deaths in 2022. With the next replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria less than a year away – governments must commit now to ensure it is fully funded.”

The report highlights that of the $8.3 billion required annually for the malaria response, only $4 billion was secured in 2023, leaving a $4.3 billion funding gap. This shortfall has steadily widened from $2.6 billion in 2019. The lack of resources hampers the ability to scale up lifesaving interventions such as vaccines, insecticide-treated bed nets, rapid diagnostic tests, and anti-malarial medicines. Without immediate action, the stagnation threatens to worsen, erasing progress and endangering millions of lives, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global non-profit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 2 million people in 48 countries worldwide in the Africa, the Americas, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Europe. We are currently the largest non-profit provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the world. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

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