Anopheles minimus mosquitoes are pictured at a lab in the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok, Thailand.
Global health authorities need to counter a worrying lull in the fight against malaria by focusing their efforts on the near-dozen mostly African countries where it claims most lives, the World Health Organization said.
After several years of steady declines, annual cases of the mosquito-borne disease are levelling off, the U.N. health agency's 2018 malaria report showed on Monday.
To get back on track, the current broad approach to combating it must be fine-tuned, said WHO malaria chief Pedro Alonso. "The problem is that we have stalled progress," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Scientists are working on potential malaria vaccines and on new ways to control mosquito populations, but with the WHO report showing around half of Africans at risk still not sleeping under insecticide-treated nets in 2017, the world cannot simply afford to wait for those to materalise.
"So we need to do better at having a greater impact with the tools and resources we have," Alonso said.
The report showed around 435,000 deaths and 219 million malaria cases in 2017, both little changed from 2016. Global case numbers fell steadily from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015, and deaths from 607,000 to around 500,000 from 2010 to 2013.
The WHO's new "precision public health" approach is to focus in on the areas where malaria is hitting hardest, Alonso said.
In 2017, the report found, around 70 percent of all cases and deaths were concentrated in 10 African countries - including Cameroon, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo - plus India.
The plan involves making better use of detailed data to target areas where bednets or more widespread use of indoor spraying would have a greater impact. Protection for pregnant women and children from malaria also remained too low, the report found.
"We recognise we have to do something different – now," WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The report found some pockets of progress: India recorded a 24 percent reduction in malaria cases in 2017 and Rwanda 436,000 fewer. Ethiopia and Pakistan also both reported marked decreases.
German businessman Friedrich Merz, who is running to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic (CDU) party, disclosed for the first time that he earns about one million euros ($1.14 million) a year, Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday.Merz, 62, chairs the German arm of the U.S. investment fund BlackRock, works for the U.S. law firm Mayer Brown and serves on the board of numerous companies.Merz is running against CDU General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, and Health Minister Jens Spahn, 38.Merz stood at 49 percent support in a poll of conservative supporters published Sunday, compared to 32 percent for Kramp-Karrenbauer and 7 percent for Spahn."I began with the income of a law clerk in Saarbruecken that was manageable for a family with two children. Today I earn about a million euros gross", Merz told the newspaper.Merz provided no details about his income from various positions, but annual reports show he recently earned 125,000 euros at BlackRock alone, as well as 80,000 euros at Wepa Industrieholding, which makes toilet paper; 75,000 euros at Bank HSBC Trinkhaus, and 14,000 euros at the Cologne-Bonn Airport GmbH, the newspaper reported.Criticised recently for saying he belonged to the upper middle class, Merz told the paper: "For me, 'middle class' is not a pure economic measure. From my parents I learned the values that shape the middle class, including hard work, discipline, decency, respect and the knowledge that one should give back to society as one can".Merz said for him the word "upper class" conjured images of people who had inherited a great deal of money or a company that allowed them to enjoy their lives. "This is not the case for me". ($1 = 0.8758 euro) Merkel protege eyes female quota for lawmakers, takes aim at dual citizenshipHard Brexit would be disastrous says German industryGerman transport minister wants to welcome Uber, others by 2021Germany says many questions in Khashoggi case remain openGerman far-right leader attacks media over donations scandal
'I earn around a million euros', German conservative Merz tells Bild
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leading polls to succeed Angela Merkel as head of Germany's Christian Democrats, said she would consider legislation to ensure better representation of women in parliament, unless her party changed its approach.A new poll conducted for public broadcaster ARD showed 46 percent of CDU supporters backed Kramp-Karrenbauer for the post, compared to 31 percent for businessman Friedrich Merz and 12 percent for Health Minister Jens Spahn.Among women, support for Merz dropped to around half the level achieved by Kramp-Karrenbauer, ARD said.The number of women CDU lawmakers fell in the 2017 elections to one-fifth of the party's parliamentarians, and better representation of women is essential to shore up the party's support in future elections, Kramp-Karrenbauer said.Germany says many questions in Khashoggi case remain openShe told broadcaster Suedwestrundfunk (SWR) that many in the party had failed to take seriously a 1996 CDU rule reserving a third of party list candidates for women and said she would try to enforce the rule if elected leader.She said she would also consider legal measures to ensure better representation of women in Germany's parliament.New legislation to adopt a female quota was "a last resort", she said. "But it would be naive to think we can just let the issue run its course."In another interview with Der Spiegel magazine, Kramp-Karrenbauer also took aim at dual citizenship rules, accusing Turkey's leadership of trying to split the loyalties of German-Turkish dual nationals living in Germany.German far-right leader attacks media over donations scandal"If that continues, then dual citizenship is missing its sense and purpose, and we must talk about how we end this system," she said.The former premier of the western state of Saarland, said she supported a plan under which the children of immigrants received a second passport, but their children would not.The CDU voted in 2016 to end dual citizenship, but Chancellor Merkel subsequently said she did not feel bound by the vote.Merkel, now in her fourth term, has said she will step down as leader of her Christian Democrats, but plans to remain chancellor through 2021. Germany not meeting Turkey's demands on FETÖ: FMGermany's Merkel sees digital tax proposal by December
Merkel protege eyes female quota for lawmakers, takes aim at dual citizenship