24 April 2017 – On the eve of World Malaria Day, the United Nations health agency called today for accelerating scaled-up efforts to prevent malaria, which remains a major public health threat, killing one child every two minutes worldwide in 2015.

The UN World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest report, Malaria prevention works: Let’s close the gap, spotlights critical gaps in prevention coverage, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

“WHO-recommended tools have made a measurable difference in the global malaria fight, but we need a much bigger push for prevention – especially in Africa, which bears the greatest burden of malaria,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

Image: A young girl reads inside a mosquito net in West Bengal, India. Credit: Joydeep Mukherjee