Pregnant women and children in sub-Saharan Africa are still most vulnerable to malaria 

The latest global malaria report from the WHO finds that pregnant women and children — especially in sub-Saharan Africa — are still disproportionately affected by the disease despite progress elsewhere. Between 2010-2018, the number of malaria deaths worldwide decreased from 585,000 per year to around 400,000. Despite this improvement, there were still 11 million pregnant women in sub-Saharan countries who contracted malaria last year, and as a result nearly 900,000 children were born with low birth weights. And global spending for malaria last year fell short by almost half of its target spending of $5 billion. At the same time, there was an uptick in use of preventive methods: More than 60% of children under 5 and pregnant women last year slept under treated bed nets, compared to 26% in 2010.