Overview
- Gavi, which reported Friday, has delivered more than 50 million malaria vaccine doses in 25 African countries since 2024, with early drops in severe cases and hospitalizations.
- WHO said it now sees a real possibility of defeating malaria in our lifetimes and launched a global campaign tied to World Malaria Day to rally governments and donors.
- WHO authorized the first artemether‑lumefantrine formulation tailored for newborns and very small infants, enabling UN procurement and safer dosing for an estimated 30 million babies born each year in African endemic areas.
- WHO also cleared three rapid diagnostic tests designed to catch infections that older kits can miss when the parasite drops a target protein, and it urges countries to switch if misses exceed five percent.
- Gavi and WHO warn that cuts by the United States and other donors threaten planned scale‑up to fully vaccinate tens of millions more children, even as Africa still accounts for about 95 percent of cases and deaths with young children most at risk.