We have the means to beat malaria, do we have the will?

The latest World malaria report, published on Dec 4, 2025, opens its concluding section with “From 2000 to 2015, malaria case incidence declined by 25·6%, from 79·4 to 59·0 cases per 1000 population at risk. However, between 2015 and 2024, the incidence increased by 8·5%”. A reversal of progress is always unwelcome, but what makes this most discomfiting is the point at which the inflection seemingly happened: 2015. This same year is when the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for malaria was declared met.