Disruptions From COVID-19 Response Led to 63,000 More Malaria Deaths

The file photo of a feeding female Anopheles stephensi mosquito crouching forward and downward on her forelegs on a human skin surface, in the process of obtaining its blood meal through its sharp, needle-like labrum, which it had inserted into its human host. (James Gathany/CDC via AP)

Deaths due to malaria jumped after the pandemic, with four nations from Africa accounting for much of the deaths last year, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Between 2000 and 2019, global malaria deaths declined from 897,000 to 568,000, states the World Malaria Report 2022 published Dec. 8. In 2020, malaria deaths rose by 10 percent to 625,000 and then declined slightly to 619,000 in 2021. The 63,000 additional deaths between 2019 and 2021 are being blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic having disrupted “essential malaria services.” The global malaria mortality rate dropped from 20 per 100,000 people to 14 between 2000 and 2019, only to rise to 14.8 in 2021.

Roughly 96 percent of all global malaria deaths happened in just 29 nations. Four countries from Africa accounted for over half the deaths in 2021. This includes Nigeria at 31 percent, the Democratic Republic of Congo at 13 percent, Niger at 4 percent, and the United Republic of Tanzania at 4 percent.

In the WHO African Region, malaria deaths rose from 541,000 in 2018 to 593,000 in 2021. Between 2019 and 2021, the malaria mortality rate rose from 56 per 100,000 individuals to 58.

WHO estimates that around 2 billion malaria cases and 11.7 million malaria deaths were prevented between 2000 and 2021. Roughly 82 percent of the averted cases and 95 percent of averted deaths were in the WHO African region.

The WHO calculates there were 247 million malaria cases globally last year in 84 malaria-endemic nations, up from 245 million in 2020.

Stalled Efforts, New Mosquito Species

Speaking about the WHO report to AP, Abdisalan Noor, a senior official at the malaria department, said that the world was already “off track” regarding the malaria situation even before the pandemic. However, the COVID-19 crisis “has now made things worse.”

Alister Craig, dean of biological sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, also confirmed that progress in reducing malaria deaths had stalled prior to the pandemic. “It is almost as if we have reached a limit of effectiveness for the tools we have now,” he said.

Meanwhile, scientists are worried about an invasive new mosquito species in Africa. The species, known as Anopheles stephensi, was mostly found in the Persian Gulf and India. It was detected in Djibouti in 2012 and later in other African nations like Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen.

The mosquitoes are believed to be responsible for a recent increase in malaria cases in Djibouti as well as an outbreak in Ethiopia earlier in the year.

In an interview with AP, Thomas Churcher, a professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London, said that native mosquitoes in Africa do not usually breed in artificial containers or in polluted cities.

But the invasive species is capable of thriving in these conditions. “If these mosquitoes get a toehold in Africa, it could be phenomenally bad,” he said.