Despite progress toward preventing the spread of malaria, the world is moving too slowly toward elimination of the disease, which still claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
On the positive side, children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa have greater access to tools that stop the transmission of malaria, according to the annual World Malaria Report. Diagnostic testing for children and preventive treatment for pregnant women has risen steeply across the region over the last five years, and the use of nets treated with insecticide has expanded rapidly.