A report on World Health Organization and Malaria

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell

Alexey Yablokov (left) and Vassili Nesterenko (farthest right) protesting in front of the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in 2008.

The life cycle of malaria parasites. Sporozoites are introduced by a mosquito bite. They migrate to the liver, where they multiply into thousands of merozoites. The merozoites infect red blood cells and replicate, infecting more and more red blood cells. Some parasites form gametocytes, which are taken up by a mosquito, continuing the life cycle.

Demonstration on Chernobyl disaster day near WHO in Geneva

Micrograph of a placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria. H&E stain. Red blood cells are anuclear; blue/black staining in bright red structures (red blood cells) indicate foreign nuclei from the parasites.

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme read the news that smallpox had been globally eradicated, 1980

Electron micrograph of a Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cell (center), illustrating adhesion protein "knobs"

Countries by World Health Organization membership status

The blood film is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis.

Ring-forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum in human blood

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito shortly after obtaining blood from a human (the droplet of blood is expelled as a surplus). This mosquito is a vector of malaria, and mosquito control is an effective way of reducing its incidence.

Man spraying kerosene oil in standing water, Panama Canal Zone, 1912

Walls where indoor residual spraying of DDT has been applied. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.

An advertisement for quinine as a malaria treatment from 1927.

Deaths due to malaria per million persons in 2012

Map of the WHO's regional offices and their respective operating regions.
Africa; HQ: Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
Western Pacific; HQ: Manila, Philippines
Eastern Mediterranean; HQ: Cairo, Egypt
South East Asia; HQ: New Delhi, India
Europe; HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Americas; HQ: Washington, D.C., US

Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009

Ancient malaria oocysts preserved in Dominican amber

British doctor Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria.

Chinese medical researcher Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her work on the antimalarial drug artemisinin.

Artemisia annua, source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin

U.S. Marines with malaria in a field hospital on Guadalcanal, October 1942

Members of the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations collecting larvae on the Danube delta, 1929

1962 Pakistani postage stamp promoting malaria eradication program

Disability-adjusted life year for malaria per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004
no data
<10
0–100
100–500
500–1000
1000–1500
1500–2000
2000–2500
2500–2750
2750–3000
3000–3250
3250–3500
≥3500

Its current priorities include communicable diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, Ebola, COVID-19, malaria and tuberculosis; non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer; healthy diet, nutrition, and food security; occupational health; and substance abuse.

- World Health Organization

In areas where malaria is common, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends clinicians suspect malaria in any person who reports having fevers, or who has a current temperature above 37.5 °C without any other obvious cause.

- Malaria

13 related topics with Alpha

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

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The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations".

In this context the World Health Organization (WHO) called for a "Massive Attack on Diseases of Poverty" in December 1999.

World Malaria Day

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A World Malaria Day event in Lamu, Kenya, in 2011

World Malaria Day in Adenta, Ghana, in 2013

President Bush addresses Americans in The White House Rose Garden about the issues of malaria.

World Malaria Day (WMD) is an international observance commemorated every year on 25 April and recognizes global efforts to control malaria.

WMD is one of 11 official global public health campaigns currently marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization Week, World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, World Patient Safety Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Chagas Disease Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day and World AIDS Day.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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National public health agency of the United States.

The Communicable Disease Center moved to its current headquarters in 1960. Building 1 is pictured in 1963.

Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center

CDC Building 17 in Atlanta, Georgia, as seen from Emory University

David Sencer points to a depiction of Triatomine sp., which transmits Chagas disease

Donald Henderson as part of the CDC's smallpox eradication team in 1966

CDC and MSF staff preparing to enter an Ebola treatment unit in Liberia, August 2014

Preceding its founding, organizations with global influence in malaria control were the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations and the Rockefeller Foundation.

They work with many international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as ministries of health and other groups on the front lines of outbreaks.