April 25 is World Malaria Day.
A disease that has affected the world and its people since the beginning of recorded human history, malaria remains an entrenched global health challenge. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately half of the world's population is at risk.
But the global geography of malaria is increasingly disproportionate. The vast majority of malaria cases and malaria-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, which the director-general of the WHO, Margaret Chan, has called "the heartland of malaria." Meanwhile, "outside Africa, the malaria map is shrinking, as more and more countries eliminate malaria from their territory," says Chan.
Malaria's victims are also disproportionately children: the United Nations children's fund (Unicef) estimates that 85 percent of those who die from malaria are children under 5 years of age.
