The number of people around the globe who succumb to malaria has fallen dramatically since 2000, a report from the World Health Organization finds.

According to the World Malaria Report 2014 (242 pages, PDF), the malaria mortality rate fell 47 percent worldwide between 2000 and 2013, and 54 percent in Africa, where nearly 90 percent of malaria deaths occur. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people infected fell from 173 million in 2000 to 128 million in 2013, despite a 43 percent increase in the region's population over that period. According to the report, the improvements in the mortality rate and rates of infection are due in part to expanded access to insecticide-treated bed nets among the at-risk population in sub-Saharan Africa, more accurate diagnostic testing, and more effective treatments.

While a growing number of countries are inching closer toward eliminating the disease and a number of regional groups have set elimination targets — including a declaration at the East Asia Summit in November to eliminate the disease from the Asia-Pacific region by 2030 — the report notes that one-third of at-risk households in sub-Saharan Africa did not have a single insecticide treated net; that indoor residual spraying has decreased in recent years; and that resistance to insecticide has been reported in forty-nine countries. Progress on two other fronts, scaling preventive therapies for pregnant women and adopting recommended preventive therapies for infants and children under the age of 5, also has been slow.

According to the report, international and domestic funding for malaria control and elimination totaled $2.7 billion in 2013 — a threefold increase since 2005 but still significantly below the estimated $5.1 billion needed to achieve global targets for malaria control and elimination. At particular risk, the report warns, are efforts to provide malaria treatment and interventions in countries affected by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where many health facilities remain closed or avoided.

"We can win the fight against malaria," said WHO director-general Margaret Chan. "We have the right tools and our defenses are working. But we still need to get those tools to a lot more people if we are to make these gains sustainable."