Deaths from malaria have nearly halved this century thanks to "remarkable progress", global health experts revealed yesterday.
Improvements in prevention and treatment have saved more than three million lives since the turn of the century, according to the World Health Organisation.
Deaths rates have been cut by 45% globally and 49% in Africa, its annual malaria report said.
And deaths among African children fell by 54%.
In spite of the successes, some 207 million people contracted the disease last year and 627,000 died, WHO reported.
As many as 3.4 billion people remain at risk from the disease, mainly in Africa and south-east Asia.
WHO warned that progress might be slowing down with world recession limiting the spread of insecticide-treated bed nets. Fewer than half of people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to these nets.
WHO said 150 million nets should be delivered annually to affected countries – but only 70 million nets were delivered last year.
The report says diagnosis continues to improve as does access to the recommended treatment based on artemisinin.
General secretary Dr Margaret Chan said: “This remarkable progress is no cause for complacency: absolute numbers of malaria cases and deaths are not going down as fast as they could.
“The fact that so many people are infected and dying from mosquito bites is one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century.”
And Dr Robert Newman, who directs the WHO global malaria programme, said: “The remarkable gains against malaria are still fragile.
“In the next 10-15 years, the world will need innovative tools and technologies, as well as new strategic approaches to sustain and accelerate progress.”
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