Ghana has achieved a 98 percent reduction in malaria deaths over 14 years, cutting recorded fatalities from 3,259 in 2011 to just 52 in 2025, according to figures presented at the country’s 2026 World Malaria Day commemoration in Accra.
Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, director of public health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), disclosed the figures on Saturday in a speech delivered on behalf of GHS Director-General Samuel Kaba Akoriyea. He said malaria prevalence has also dropped sharply, falling from 27.5 percent in 2011 to 8.6 percent in 2022.
“Our children’s mortality rate has fallen by 76 percent in two years alone, and malaria vaccines are protecting Ghanaian children through routine immunisation,” Asiedu-Bekoe said.
He added that Ghana has reached first-dose coverage of 78.3 percent across two malaria vaccines, a significant step in building immunity among the country’s youngest population. He also put the economic stakes of full elimination in focus, noting that eradicating the disease entirely could restore 427.7 million US dollars in annual productivity losses to the Ghanaian economy.
The event was held under this year’s global theme, “Driving to End Malaria: Now We Can, Now We Must,” which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has framed as both a recognition of measurable progress and an urgent call to accelerate action toward elimination.
Fiona Braka, WHO Ghana country director, praised the government’s sustained commitment, particularly its work protecting children from malaria-related deaths. She outlined five conditions she described as critical to sustaining progress: continued national ownership of the malaria response, intelligence-driven action, equitable and rapid scaling of innovation, strengthening of primary health care, and a broad whole-of-society effort to end the disease.
The results mark a significant turning point for a country that has long carried one of the heaviest malaria burdens in West Africa. Ghana’s National Malaria Elimination Programme has credited sustained investment in insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, seasonal chemoprevention, and vaccine rollout as the primary drivers of the gains recorded since 2011.
