WHO warns Africa off track on Malaria goals as climate change threatens elimination push

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 8— Africa is off track to meet its malaria reduction targets, with climate change, biological resistance, shrinking donor funding and inadequate intervention coverage threatening efforts to eliminate the disease by 2030, the World Health Organization has warned.

WHO Kenya Deputy Representative Dr. Boston Zimba said the continent accounted for 94 per cent of global malaria cases and 95 per cent of malaria deaths in 2024, as the disease continues to pose a major public health challenge across sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the World Malaria Report 2025, an estimated 282 million malaria cases were recorded globally in 2024, nine million more than the previous year.

“Analysis of the progress towards meeting Global Technical Strategy (GTS) 2025 targets shows that in 2024 the African region was off track for both malaria morbidity and mortality milestones,” Zimba said in a keynote address at the 2nd East African Community Malaria Stakeholders Meeting in Nairobi.

The meeting brings together malaria experts, researchers, policymakers and development partners from East Africa and beyond to assess progress towards the region’s 2030 elimination target.

Zimba identified six priorities that he said should guide the continent’s malaria response: political leadership and advocacy; innovation and new tools; data and digital health; health financing and quality of care; tackling emerging biological threats; and addressing the intersection between climate change, health and malaria.

Climate change

Zimba singled out climate change as one of the factors threatening progress, saying changing weather patterns are creating conditions that can alter malaria transmission across the continent.

“Climate change has become a crisis, especially for vulnerable regions and populations,” he said.

He said flooding, temperature variations and high humidity can create mosquito breeding sites and improve mosquito survival, potentially changing transmission patterns in different parts of Africa.

“The implication is that programmes must incorporate in their intervention mixes, programme design and implementation approaches the effects of climate change to ensure proper adaptation and strategies,” Zimba said.

The warning comes as East Africa prepares for the effects of changing weather patterns, with countries increasingly integrating malaria surveillance and response into broader climate and health planning.

Israel’s Ambassador to Kenya Gideon Behar said climate change was already expanding the geographical conditions favourable to malaria transmission, warning that the region must prepare for a potential increase in cases.

“Malaria is on the rise. Why is it on the rise? This is a fundamental question,” Behar said.

He said rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns were allowing mosquitoes to survive in areas that were previously less favourable to them.

“Climate change, for sure, aids the spread of malaria,” Behar said, adding that mosquitoes could now move into higher, colder and more northern areas.

Behar also warned that the anticipated effects of El Niño could further complicate malaria control in East Africa.

Behar said Israel’s experience in eliminating malaria and its research capacity could support East Africa’s efforts to control and eventually eliminate the disease.

Israel previously had malaria but has since eliminated transmission, he said, giving its researchers experience that could contribute to the region’s response.

“We have very good expertise in malaria elimination and malaria research and in understanding malaria,” Behar said.

He said Israeli experts from institutions including Hadassah Hospital, the Weizmann Institute, the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University were participating in the Nairobi meeting.

The ambassador also stressed the importance of regional cooperation, saying malaria elimination could not be achieved through isolated national efforts.

“Working for elimination of malaria is a regional effort. It can’t be individual, only individual or national level,” Behar said.

He said the East African Community provided an important platform for coordinating that regional response.

Stronger surveillance

Zimba said countries must also strengthen surveillance and modernise their health information systems to ensure that malaria data can be used quickly to guide interventions.

“There’s a need to ensure that countries include high-quality routine malaria data … into the government digital infrastructure,” he said.

He called for systems that can link electronic medical records and health information systems, improve data visibility and integrate early-warning mechanisms.

Zimba also highlighted the growing threat of drug, diagnostic and insecticide resistance.

“Countries must [address] resistance in all forms and shapes,” he said, citing resistance to antimalarial medicines, insecticides and the ability of malaria parasites to evade some diagnostic tests.

He called for greater investment in new tools, including antimalarial drug combinations, artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostics, malaria vaccines and GIS-based approaches to distributing insecticide-treated nets.

Community-led response

Kenya’s Ministry of Health, represented at the meeting by Edwin Onyango, said malaria elimination would ultimately depend on the strength of primary healthcare and community systems.

Onyango said Kenya’s network of community health promoters could play a critical role in ensuring early detection, referral and access to treatment.

“Malaria elimination will ultimately be won or lost at the community and primary healthcare level,” he said.

He called for stronger links between community health promoters and the wider health system while urging countries to move from waiting for malaria cases to occur towards more preventive and surveillance-based interventions.

Onyango also highlighted the importance of regional cooperation, citing Kenya-Uganda cross-border malaria initiatives and collaboration between Tanzania and Rwanda.

“East Africa cannot eliminate malaria by working in isolation; we must all come together,” he said.

Unified regional action

The East African Community said the region now had the science, institutions and policy frameworks needed to accelerate the fight against malaria but must demonstrate stronger political commitment and collective action.

The EAC also called for stronger regional financing mechanisms, including a proposal for a regional malaria fund, as countries seek to sustain programmes amid pressure on external donor support.

The meeting is also reviewing progress since the first EAC Malaria Stakeholders Meeting held in October 2024 and examining the implementation of recommendations on antimalarial drug resistance, surveillance, diagnostics, treatment and vector control.

“Our region has science, the institution and the policy. What we must now demonstrate is the political will and the collective discipline to act as one,”said Andrea Ariik Malueth, the Deputy Secretary General  of the EAC in charge of Infrastructure, Productive, Social and Political sectors.