South Africa aims to eradicate malaria by 2030 and appears to be making good progress. The number of reported cases dropped from 64,622 in 2000 to 9,795 in 2023, according to the department of health.

There is, however, an intricate interaction between climate change and infectious diseases and rising temperatures may make it harder to meet eradication targets. Temperature affects the growth cycle of the parasite that causes malaria. Below 20 deg Celsius, the parasite cannot complete its growth cycle in the Anopheles mosquito, preventing transmission.

In many other African countries, malaria remains a major health crisis, causing millions of infections and thousands of deaths each year. In 2023, an estimated 251-million cases led to almost 580,000 deaths.

The Malaria Atlas Project suggests in a recent report that climate change could cause over half-a-million additional malaria deaths by 2050. More than 90% of these, it predicts, will arise from loss of protection following extreme weather.