Since 2000, malaria prevention has played an important role in reducing cases and deaths, primarily through the scale up of insecticide-treated nets and indoor spraying with insecticides. According to the latest estimates from World Health Organisation (WHO), many countries with ongoing malaria transmission have reduced their disease burden significantly. On a global scale, new malaria cases fell by 21% between 2010 and 2015. Malaria death rates fell by 29% in the same 5-year period.
With an estimated 3.3 million people at risk, leading to 212 million new cases and an estimated 429,000 deaths in 2016. Sub-Saharan Africa bears a disproportionately high burden, with approximately 88% of these cases and 90% of deaths, predominantly in children less than 5 years of age. In the lead-up to World Malaria Day 25 April under the theme End malaria for good, to raise awareness within The Gambia by reducing the toll of a disease that continues to kill more than 400,000 people worldwide annually. The malaria team at MRC Unit The Gambia, in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, will participate in the World Malaria Day Scientific Symposium on Thursday 20th April 2017 at the Ocean Bay Hotel which will be preceded by a press conference.

To mark the day, the main event will take place at Essau  in the North Bank Region of The Gambia, on Monday, 25 April 2016. The day will provide an opportunity for a vision for a malaria-free world set out in the WHO’s Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 to reduce malaria case incidences and mortality of at least 90% by 2030.