Malaria in Africa

Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite and carried from person to person by mosquitoes. If bitten, anyone can become infected. Patients with malaria typically are very sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness—headache, muscle aches, fatigue.

Symptoms may appear within 24 hours but can take as long as 14 days to manifest after the infectious mosquito bite. If drugs are not available for treatment or the parasites are resistant to them, the infection can progress rapidly to become life-threatening. Malaria can kill by infecting and destroying red blood cells (anemia) and by clogging the capillaries that carry blood to the brain (cerebral malaria) or other vital organs.

Though malaria is preventable and treatable, the World Health Organization estimates that each year 300–500 million new cases occur and more than 1 million people die. Not only does malaria result in lost life and lost productivity due to illness and premature death, but it also hampers children's schooling and social development through both absenteeism and permanent neurological damage associated with severe cases.

Malaria thrives in certain global zones because of geography, poverty and existing infected mosquito populations. Infection is a constant hazard for almost half the world's population and is a constant challenge and resource drain for more than 100 governments.


Mosquito bed net installed in a hut in the village of Kiyi, Kuje, near Abuja, Nigeria

© WHO/Pierre Virot
Treatable, Yet Deadly

This preventable, treatable disease remains one of the most severe public health problems worldwide. It is a leading cause of death in many developing countries. Most of the victims are young African children. Across the continent, an African child dies every 30 seconds of malaria.

Currently, there is no vaccine, but treatment is available. Also, prevention methods are well understood and relatively inexpensive. Mosquito-killing sprays and bed nets protect people from the tiny bite that means infection, and often death. The challenge remains to spread knowledge and resources across borders to those in need.

And those borders are widening. Malaria causes a negative cycle: Impoverished people without access to prevention methods and health systems are infected at the highest rates. Then, the disease slows development by overwhelming households and existing infrastructure. The weight of malaria on fragile governments and social services reduces the economic growth of countries. The result is even more poverty, increasing the number of people who are vulnerable to malaria.

This cycle can be disrupted.


Small child in advanced stage of malaria at Garki General Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria

© WHO/Pierre Virot
International Action

Clear targets and strategies unite the international community in the eradication of malaria. The Millennium Development Goals outline what needs to be done, while the Roll Back Malaria initiative lays out a plan. The World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN) and World Bank are working alongside thousands of partners to control malaria on a large scale.

At the World Bank, the counterattack on malaria in Africa includes a multi-country prevention and treatment Booster Program. The effort, as of July 2006, includes a commitment of US $167 million to eight countries with US $240 million more planned in six additional nations. This year, the program already invests three times more than last year.

About 240 million people, including 42 million children under the age of 5, and nearly 10 million pregnant women are in areas covered by Booster Program projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The global response to malaria is growing outside the World Bank, too.

New large-scale non-governmental organizations, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are active in the fight. The World Bank is a partner with the Gates Foundation and other groups in anti-malaria programs. Private businesses play an essential role as well. More local insecticide, bed net and medicine manufacturers need to open up and compete to create lower prices for prevention and treatment in Africa.

To wipe out the devastating disease, the fight against it is expanding from incremental country-by-country programs to a continent-wide strategy.


What Youthink! Heard From You!

Summer interns at the World Bank shared their thoughts on why it's important to stop malaria and why that's so hard to do.

Read their answers
What Can I Do?

If you live in a country with a high risk of malaria infection, arm yourself with knowledge. Most national health ministries have detailed maps about where danger is greatest and least. Generally, places of special caution are the countryside and wherever there is standing water, from puddles and cisterns to swamplands.

Be aware of malaria regions when you travel. This includes most of the Southern Hemisphere and the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa. Rural areas are particularly hazardous. Take precautions to protect yourself against infected mosquitoes.

Live with awareness. Get active in the global fight again malaria through donating your time (for instance, helping arrange an activity around World Malaria Day which is usually in April every year), or money toward the cause.

Visit the links in the Learn More box on this page for more information.