Infectious Diseases

Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, particularly for children under 5. According to the World Health Organization, there were an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 malaria-related deaths worldwide in 2024. The burden remains highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where 94% of malaria cases and 95% of malaria-related deaths occur. Despite progress in some countries, the world is not currently on track to meet global malaria reduction targets. 

World Vision has partnered with the Global Fund and national governments for more than 15 years to strengthen malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment while improving health systems in malaria-affected communities. Our work includes support for programs in countries such as Angola, the Central African Republic, Malawi, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone. 

Through Global Fund-supported malaria programs, more than 14 million insecticide-treated nets have been distributed, providing protection for an estimated 25 million people. These programs have also supported more than 21 million malaria diagnostic tests, and more than 13 million malaria treatments, along with preventive services for more than 1.3 million pregnant women and children in areas with high transmission. 

Key approaches 

Expanding access to insecticide-treated nets: World Vision works with community networks to increase access to insecticide-treated nets, particularly for children and pregnant women, helping protect families from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. 

Promoting prevention and healthy behaviors: We provide information and education to help families reduce malaria risk and seek care early. We also support preventive treatment for pregnant women to reduce malaria-related complications, including anemia, miscarriage, and premature birth. 

Strengthening community health systems: World Vision supports integrated community case management to improve the diagnosis and treatment of malaria and other common childhood illnesses. We also help communities work with governments, the private sector, and civil society to improve access to quality health services, particularly in areas with limited access to health facilities. 

In addition to our Global Fund programming, World Vision partnered with The Rotary Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and private donors on Partners for a Malaria Free Zambia (2021–2024). The program worked to reduce malaria transmission and deaths across 10 high-burden districts in Zambia’s Central and Muchinga provinces, using practical approaches that Zambia’s health system could adopt more broadly. 

Key results include: 

• Expanding community-based care: The program trained and deployed 2,500 community health workers to deliver integrated community case management services to more than 1.5 million people, including more than 300,000 children younger than 5. By the program’s close, nine of the 10 districts now meet Zambia’s national standard of one community health worker per 500 people. 

• Strengthening prevention and care-seeking: Community education helped families recognize malaria symptoms earlier and seek testing and treatment more quickly. The endline evaluation found community members were more likely to reduce mosquito breeding sites and follow recommended treatment regimens. 

• Improving health reporting: The program strengthened reporting systems within Zambia’s health system, improving both the timeliness and completeness of reports from health facilities and community health workers. 

Tuberculosis is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, causing more deaths each year than any other single infectious agent. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 10.7 million people fell ill with TB in 2024, including 1.2 million children and young adolescents, and 1.23 million people died from the disease, including 150,000 people living with HIV. Eight countries account for roughly two-thirds of cases worldwide. Global TB incidence has fallen just 12% since 2015, far short of the 50% reduction called for in WHO’s End TB Strategy. 

World Vision works to identify and treat TB in the communities where we work, with the goal of eliminating the disease. We conduct community-based screening — sometimes using mobile X-ray units in hard-to-reach areas — to find and treat cases early, particularly among children and others at high risk. We also provide preventive therapy and trace household contacts of people diagnosed with TB, so the disease can be stopped before it spreads. Our programs support national governments through health and community systems strengthening, and use advocacy and social mobilization to improve case identification, diagnosis, and enrollment in treatment. We also support diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant TB. And because people living with HIV face a significantly higher risk of developing TB — approximately 619,000 did so in 2024 — we support integrated care for people affected by both diseases. 

As a long-term partner in national TB responses, World Vision helps communities develop local leadership, mobilize volunteers, advocate with local leaders, and connect with nearby health providers. We provide direct support to people undergoing TB treatment and to their families, and we partner with local nongovernmental and faith-based organizations to strengthen their capacity to respond to TB and build stronger links between communities and health facilities. 

Since 2002, World Vision has implemented Global Fund TB grants totaling $420 million across 13 countries. In 2025, our TB work spanned the Central African Republic, Haiti, India, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Thailand. These programs work to scale up TB prevention and treatment, improve quality of care, and reduce barriers to care for people at highest risk. Recent results include more than 480,000 people tested for TB and more than 58,000 people successfully treated or cured, including nearly 3,000 people treated for drug-resistant TB, which requires longer, more complex care. Prevention and contact tracing reached more than 45,000 people at high risk, primarily household contacts of people with confirmed TB and people living with HIV. 

World Vision also invests in approaches that extend care to people who are hardest to reach. In Haiti, AI-enabled mini X-ray technology has expanded diagnostic access in remote communities. In India, more than 4,600 community TB camps brought screening and education directly into neighborhoods. In Kenya, 8,000 children across 30 schools learned to recognize TB symptoms and when to seek care, and 930 community health promoters were trained to use a digital screening application and traced approximately 5,000 people who had been in contact with someone with TB. 

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of 21 mainly infectious diseases that affect more than 1 billion people across 149 countries—approximately one in five people worldwide. These diseases, which are typically bacterial, parasitic or viral infections, disproportionately impact poor and marginalized communities lacking adequate sanitation and health infrastructure. Children and women are particularly vulnerable, as NTDs can cause lifelong disfiguration and stigma, negatively impact children’s health and education, and hinder overall economic development.

With more than 25 years of global experience, World Vision partners with governments to deliver preventive and curative treatment through mass distribution of medication, health and sanitation supplies, and food products. We have a long-standing history of providing clean water and sanitation access for millions of children and their families — critical elements in the prevention and elimination of NTDs.

Our technical strategies use a health systems strengthening approach aligned with the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Roadmap 2021–2030. This roadmap aims to address the NTD burden by promoting holistic, cross-sectoral approaches and calling for greater ownership of NTD programming by countries and communities.

World Vision’s approach focuses on:

• Strengthening coordination and collaboration across sectors
• Supporting country-specific, sustainable approaches to NTD control and elimination
• Building governments’ capacity and resilience to deliver integrated health services and strengthen health systems, helping ensure the sustainable implementation of effective NTD programming.

Examples of our work include:

• Supporting the development of country-owned NTD sustainability plans
• Leveraging in-country expertise and existing distribution platforms to implement cost-effective, long-term control programs
• Engaging high-level stakeholders to integrate NTD priorities into national health systems
• Developing and strengthening cross-sector frameworks by aligning NTD efforts with WASH, nutrition, malaria, maternal and child health, and school-based programs
• Integrating NTD prevention messages into school curricula and WASH behavior change communication through the NTD WASH UP! school-based model
• Developing policies and guidelines that empower healthcare workers and community volunteers to deliver sustainable NTD interventions

World Vision was a technical partner on the Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) | West program. Through this partnership, we worked with national NTD programs and Ministries of Health to strengthen cross-sector collaboration and integrate NTD efforts with WASH, education, malaria, nutrition, and other health programs and sectors.