Democratic Republic of the Congo National Malaria Control Program

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's national malaria program traces its roots to 1977, when it began as a health ministry project called the Projet de Lutte Anti Paludique, and then spent sixteen years folded into the country's Expanded Programme on Immunization as a malaria control service, before being formally elevated to the status of a national program, the Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme, known as PNLP, by ministerial order signed July 22, 1998 by Minister of Health Jean-Baptiste Sondji and taking effect that November. Operating today within the country's Roll Back Malaria framework, PNLP states its overarching goal as reducing the suffering and poverty that malaria causes the Congolese population, and it organizes its work around four pillars: prevention, case management, epidemic detection and response, and cross-cutting support functions covering monitoring, coordination and partnership development. The programme confronts one of the heaviest malaria burdens in the world: the Democratic Republic of the Congo carries the second-highest national malaria burden globally, accounting for an estimated 12.6 percent of all malaria cases and 11.3 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide in 2024, with roughly 35.2 million cases and 67,676 deaths estimated that year, and the country provides free diagnosis, whether by rapid test or microscopy, and free treatment to patients of every age.