ISLAMABAD: World Health Organization on Saturday urged Pakistan and its partners to step up efforts to prevent a resurgence of malaria, warning that recent gains remain fragile despite a drop in cases last year.
The appeal came on World Malaria Day, as the agency said Pakistan reduced malaria incidence by 10 percent in 2025 compared to 2024 but still recorded around 1.8 million cases, reflecting continued fallout from the surge triggered by the 2022 climate-driven floods.
Pakistan’s malaria burden spiked sharply from 399,097 confirmed infections in 2021 to a peak of 2.7 million in 2023, with transmission still concentrated in Balochistan, rural Sindh and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The WHO said progress remained at risk due to climate pressures, a global funding gap of $5.4 billion and cuts in international health aid that have disrupted surveillance and response systems.
“With the tools and resources available today, together, we have the historic opportunity to offer a malaria-free world to our children and our grandchildren,” the agency said in a statement.
“WHO stands with Pakistan to continue strengthening the response, providing science-based technical support to build together a future where no family should lose a loved one to malaria,” it added.
In 2025, Pakistan screened about 16.9 million suspected cases and provided free treatment to most of the nearly 1.8 million confirmed patients in collaboration with partners, including support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Over the past three years, around 12 million mosquito nets were distributed nationwide, while community-based case management has been introduced to improve access in hard-to-reach areas, the WHO said.
Globally, efforts since 2000 have helped avert an estimated 2.3 billion malaria cases and 14 million deaths, with 47 countries certified malaria-free to date.
WHO experts say eradication is increasingly within reach, driven by advances in vaccines, treatments and emerging technologies such as genetically modified mosquitoes, engineered to either reduce mosquito populations or block their ability to transmit malaria.
