Malaria infections have stopped falling

AFEW YEARS ago it looked as if malaria might be on the way out. From 2000 to 2014 the number of cases and deaths fell. As the World Health Organisation’s annual report on the disease shows, though, the decline in cases has ended (see chart) and that in deaths has slowed. The report, published on December 4th, says there were 228m cases of malaria in 2018, which resulted in 400,000 deaths. Most victims were young children in Africa. That is a far cry from targets set in 2015 for the near-elimination of malaria by 2030.