Muscat: A total of 916 cases of malaria were reported in the Sultanate in 2018, a drop of 16 per cent from 2017.
The most number of 198 cases were reported from Al Batinah North governorate in 2018.
Malaria remains one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the life of one child every two minutes. Most of these deaths are in Africa, where more than 250 000 children die from the disease every year.
In 2017, there were an estimated 435 000 deaths from malaria globally, compared with 451 000 estimated deaths in 2016, and 607 000 in 2010.
Children aged under 5 years are the most vulnerable group affected by malaria. In 2017, they accounted for 61 per cent (266 000) of all malaria deaths worldwide.
The WHO African Region accounted for 93 per cent of all malaria deaths in 2017. Although the WHO African Region was home to the highest number of malaria deaths in 2017, it also accounted for 88 per cent of the 172 000 fewer global malaria deaths reported in 2017 compared with 2010.
Nearly 80 per cent of global malaria deaths in 2017 were concentrated in 17 countries in the WHO African Region and India; seven of these countries accounted for 53% of all global malaria deaths: Nigeria (19 per cent), Democratic Republic of the Congo (11 per cent), Burkina Faso (6 per cent), United Republic of Tanzania (5 per cent), Sierra Leone (4 per cent), Niger (4 per cent) and India (4 per cent).
The largest declines occurred in the WHO regions of SouthEast Asia (54 per cent), Africa (40 per cent) and the Eastern Mediterranean (10 per cent). Despite these gains, the malaria mortality reduction rate has also slowed since 2015, reflecting the estimated trends in malaria case incidence.
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