Malaria kills more than one million people annually around the world with more than 300 million clinical cases reported yearly, five times as many as cases of TB, aids, measles and leprosy combined.
Malaria is one of the world's most common and serious tropical diseases and causes at least one million deaths every year. Majority of cases occurs in the most resource-poor countries, Forbes reported. More than half of the world's population was at risk of acquiring malaria and the proportion increases each year because of overburdened health systems, drug and insecticide resistance and climate change, it said.
It says that overall, malaria accounts for 10 percent of Africa's disease burden and it is estimated that malaria costs the continent more than 12 billion dollars annually. The disease is responsible for one out of every four deaths of children under the age of five in Africa and almost 90 percent of malaria deaths are found in sub-sahara Africa. It is a major public health problem in more than 90 countries, inhabited by more than 2.4 billion people, 40 percent of the world's population.