In the last ten years the fight against malaria has made great progress, even if no vaccine exists yet.
In Italy this disease was eradicated in 1970 and in 2016 the World Health Organisation ratified its end in all Europe.
Even so every year 214 million cases of malaria are recorded, to the point that this disease continues to be one of the major causes of death among children under five, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and south east Asia.
World Malaria Day, which is celebrated every 25th of April, reminds us that this pandemic kills a child every two minutes, for a total of 438,000 deaths every year. Malaria, even though preventable, having evident symptoms and being easily cured with antimalarial drugs, is still a threat for almost half the world population.
This day is also an important occasion for underlining how malarial contagion can only be stopped by concerted international action, pursuing the WHO objectives to reduce the disease by 90% before 2030.
Some encouraging signs in this direction have been recorded in the last 15 years: deaths from malaria have halved, more than 6 million lives have been saved thanks to prevention and treatment; access to antimalarial drugs has increased significantly and 2 children out of three in Africa are protected with insecticide impregnated mosquito nets while they sleep.