Malaria deaths are likely to rise this year due to sweeping foreign aid cuts, the head of the Global Fund, a Geneva-based NGO locked in the fight against major infectious diseases, warned on Wednesday.
Chaos has gripped the global aid sector since Donald Trump's abrupt decision to slash funds when he returned as US president in January.
While several other countries have also since scaled back their development assistance budgets, the sector has been hit hard by cuts in the United States, traditionally the world’s biggest aid donor.
"On malaria, there has been a significant impact" on the funding of all "key tools" in the fight against transmission, Peter Sands, director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, told reporters.
"There were funding gaps across all these things before. Those funding gaps have become more acute," he added.
Child deaths on the rise
Africa is bearing the brunt of the burden. Progress in the fight against the disease has stalled in recent years, largely due to climate change, increased conflict, resistance to drugs and insecticides, and funding shortages.
Malaria, which is spread by certain types of mosquitoes, causes an estimated 600,000 deaths per year, with pregnant women and children under the age of five accounting for most fatalities.
Figures for 2025 are not yet available but Sands said he expected "an increase in the number of children dying of malaria this year in part due to the reductions in funding".
According to Sands, a study by the Roll Back Malaria initiative suggests there could be more than 100,000 additional deaths this year. He also expressed concern about the potential long-term impact on research.
The Global Fund, which raises money in three-year "Replenishment" cycles, hopes to secure $18 billion by the end of November for the next period.
This could save up to 23 million lives between 2027 and 2029, according to a Global Fund statement.
