According to a report on malaria from the World Health Organization (WHO) for 2021, most malaria-related deaths happened in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Nigeria was responsible for 31% of the deaths, the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 13%, and the Niger Republic and the United Republic of Tanzania, each with 4% of the deaths, were the two countries that came in last.
The research, which was accessed on Friday, states that in 2021, slightly over half of all malaria deaths worldwide will occur in the four countries.
Even though COVID-19 is still going on, the organization said that the number of malaria cases and deaths were about the same as last year.
According to the statistics, there were 247 million cases of malaria and 619,000 fatalities worldwide in 2021, up two million instances and down six million deaths from the pandemic’s beginning in 2019.
Ninety-six percent of all malaria cases in the world were caused by 29 countries. Four countries, Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), and Mozambique (4%), were responsible for nearly half of all cases.
“29 nations accounted for over 96% of all malaria deaths worldwide. Over half of all malaria deaths worldwide in 2021 were caused by four nations: Nigeria (31%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (13%), Niger (4%), and the United Republic of Tanzania (4%).
The health organization also said that, unlike in 2020, when the COVID pandemic messed up malaria services and caused a noticeable rise in cases and deaths, countries around the world mostly stopped having any more problems with testing for and treating malaria.
“In 2021, countries gave out 223 million rapid diagnostic tests (RDT), which is close to the number reported before the outbreak,” the agency said.
“In 2021, distributions of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) were high and similar to the years before the pandemic: 75% of the 171 million ITNs that were supposed to be delivered, or 128 million nets, were given out.”
