A new global map of malaria has been released by the Malaria Atlas Project showing how severe the risks of contracting malaria are worldwide. Never before has this been attempted using empirical data at this scale and the product represents an important bench-mark of malaria endemicity in 2007.

This work shows that over 70% of the 2.4 billion people at some risk of infection with Plasmodium falciparum live in areas of unstable or low endemic risk, where the technical obstacles to malaria control are relatively small. The maps also show that almost all populations at medium and high levels of risk live in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease, death and disability burdens from P. falciparum malaria remain high.

The map published today is the first in an annual series, which will help monitor and evaluate progress towards international targets for control and elimination. All maps are map freely available on the data page and published with detailed guides on the uncertainty in their prediction.

The spatial distribution of P. falciparum malaria Pf PR 2–10 predictions stratified by endemicity class. They are categorized as low risk Pf PR 2–10 ≤ 5%, light red; intermediate risk Pf PR 2–10 > 5% to ≥ 40%, medium red; and high risk Pf PR 2–10 > 40%, dark red. The map shows the class to which Pf PR 2–10 has the highest predicted probability of membership. The rest of the land area was defined as unstable risk (medium grey areas, where Pf API , 0.1 per 1,000 pa) or no risk (light grey).

Visit the Malaria Atlas Project: http://www.map.ox.ac.uk
Download the Research Paper: http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/PDF/Hay_et_al_2009.pdf