Fighting Malaria on World Malaria Day

23rd April 2019

Incredible progress has been made in the fight against malaria and, for the first time in history, we have the tools, resources and knowledge to end one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Comic Relief is proud to be part of a massive international movement to do just that and, along with our partners, we have been working to help combat malaria in some of the most affected communities - equipping them with vital knowledge on how to prevent and treat the disease.

This World Malaria Day, we’ll be sharing inspiring stories from some of these communities – who have been telling us how things have improved over the last couple of years, now that they have learned about the importance of seeking treatment early, trusting test results and taking prescribed medication.

It’s thanks to this determination that progress is being made, but there is still a long way to go – a child still dies from the disease every two minutes, and in 2017, an estimated 219 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, an increase of two million compared to 2016.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to come together this World Malaria Day to continue the fight against malaria.

Six things we want to tell you about Malaria:

Since Comic Relief began, we have helped more than 20.5 million people across Africa through our funding of malaria projects

Through our partnership with GSK, which began in 2015, more than 1.7 million people have benefited, including more than 165,000 pregnant women and more than 226,000 children under five

A malaria summit held last year saw leaders from 15 Commonwealth counties, along with The Prince of Wales , Bill Gates and author Chimananda Ngozi Adiche gather in London to re-focus and reignite global efforts to beat malaria for good, urging Commonwealth leaders to make a commitment to halve malaria across the Commonwealth within the next five years

While this was huge progress, which is important to reflect on, it’s also important to look to the future, which is why Comic Relief is proud to support the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment(opens in new window)

Taking place in October, this is another crucial moment to step up the fight against malaria and will seek to raise billions of pounds to continue the fight to save millions of lives and end malaria

And you are a part of this change – your generous donations have been helping this fight for years  and we want you to feel proud of what you have achieved.

How much do you know about malaria? Head over to our Instagram(opens in new window) stories today to take our malaria quiz, and check back here throughout the week as we share inspiring stories from communities that are taking on the fight against malaria.