WORLD MALARIA DAY 2021

Today, the international community will celebrate World Malaria Day.

Taking place annually on 25th April, World Malaria Day is an important opportunity to highlight the global efforts to end malaria and the need for sustained political commitment and continued investment for malaria control and elimination.

This year World Malaria Day is taking place against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, and cuts to UK Overseas Development Assistance, which threaten decades of hard-fought progress against the disease. The UK is the second largest international donor to the fight against malaria and has played a leading role in helping to reduce the mortality rate of malaria by 60% between 2000 and 2019.

Today, malaria still kills one child every two minutes, and is a significant barrier to education and economic prosperity. Now more than ever, it is vital that we keep up the fight against malaria, to help save lives and strengthen the community health systems that are tackling existing deadly diseases like COVID-19 and will help to prevent future pandemics.

This World Malaria Day, it is vital that the UK government renews its longstanding commitment to tackling malaria.