The world has made progress toward eliminating malaria, with 44 countries and one territory (La Réunion) certified as malaria-free. Egypt, where malaria has existed since at least the time of the pharaohs, joined the malaria-free list in October.

Between 2000 and 2023, an estimated 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths from the mosquito-borne disease were averted, according to a report from the World Health Organization issued December 11.

But challenges including climate change, conflict and biological threats have eroded some recent gains, with 11 million more malaria cases in 2023 than in 2022. Most of those cases occurred in Africa. Globally 597,000 people died of malaria in 2023, the majority of them young children in Africa. That’s down slightly from 600,000 worldwide in 2022.

WHO has called for a 75 percent reduction in deaths from malaria by 2025 compared with 2015 levels. That would be 5.5 deaths among 100,000 people at risk for the parasitic disease. But in 2023, the death rate was more than double that target at 13.7 deaths per 100,000 at-risk people. And the incidence of malaria cases worldwide is nearly three times higher than the goal.