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 Last year, world leaders set the target for eliminating the
mosquito-borne disease in at least 35 countries by 2030.
WHO's European region - which comprises 53 countries including
Central Asia, Israel and Turkey - in 2015 became the first region to
report zero indigenous cases.
WHO can declare a country malaria free if it has reported zero cases
of indigenous malaria for three consecutive years.
The Geneva-based organization said 21 countries are in a position to
eliminate malaria within the next five years.
Here are some facts on progress in eliminating the deadly disease:
* 3.2 billion people - almost half the world's population - are at
risk of malaria. In 2015, there were 214 million new cases reported
in 95 countries, and more than 400,000 deaths.
* Africa is the most affected region, home to 88 percent of cases
and 90 percent of deaths last year.
* Since 2000, malaria death rates have fallen by 60 percent, and new
cases have dropped by 37 percent globally. In Africa, death rates
dropped by 66 percent overall, and by 71 percent among children
under 5 years.
* These advances came through widespread use of insecticide-treated
bednets, indoor spraying, rapid diagnostic testing and artemisinin-based
combination therapies over the past decade.
* Mosquitoes are developing resistance to insecticides used to treat
bednets and for indoor spraying.
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* In parts of Southeast Asia, a parasite that causes malaria has
developed resistance to treatments, and there are concerns this
resistance could spread to other regions with dire health
consequences.
* Resistance to previous generations of medicines, such as
chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, became widespread in the
1970s and 1980s, reversing gains in child survival
* In January, WHO recommended large-scale pilot projects of a new
vaccine in parts of Africa, which could pave the way for wider
deployment.
Source: WHO
(Reporting by Alex Whiting, Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking,
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