Malaria deaths cut by 60% since 2000

Treated bednets, rapid diagnosis and effective medicines have combined to cut malaria death rates by 60% since 2000 – saving more than 6 million lives – but funding must be tripled to battle a disease that still threatens nearly half the world’s people and exacts a particularly heavy toll in Africa, said UN agencies.

The millennium development goal of halting and beginning to reverse the incidence of malaria by 2015 has been convincingly met, said a joint report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN children’s agency, Unicef.

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