Brazil records its fewest locally acquired malaria cases since 1978

Brazil recorded 118,037 malaria cases acquired within the country in 2025, the lowest total since 1978. That was 15% fewer than in 2024. Deaths fell from 56 to 39, a 30% decline, while cases of the most severe form dropped 30.7%, according to figures presented by the Health Ministry at a Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine congress.

Officials linked the progress to wider diagnosis, testing and appropriate treatment, alongside the introduction of tafenoquine through Brazil’s public health system. The single-dose medicine targets dormant liver-stage parasites that can cause malaria to return, making treatment simpler, particularly in communities where health services are hard to reach. By June 2026, more than 33,700 people had received it, including 3,920 treatments in Special Indigenous Health Districts.

The Yanomami district recorded especially steep improvements. From March through June 2026, relapses fell 61.9% from the same period a year earlier. Across January to July, total cases declined 55%, from about 17,000 to 7,600. A pediatric formulation, available since March for eligible children aged two and older, had reached 1,446 children and adolescents by June, extending the relapse-prevention approach to younger patients.