The World Health Organization (WHO) has significantly lowered its previous estimate of the number of people who contract malaria annually, citing the impact of rapid urbanization in Asia on the habitats of disease-carrying mosquitoes. According to a report, 247 million individuals worldwide were infected with malaria in 2006, a decrease from the previous estimate of 350 million to 500 million. The updated report also reduced the global death toll from the disease by about 10 percent compared to the WHO's previous calculation methods, which were issued three years ago. The WHO stated that it is unclear whether there was a decrease in cases and deaths from malaria between 2004 and 2006. A report revealed that 881,000 people died from malaria in 2006, a lower figure than the previous estimate of over 1 million deaths per year from the disease, which primarily affects infants, children, and pregnant women. Various organizations, including the WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Clinton Foundation, have provided significant funding for malaria prevention and treatment. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership of the WHO has called for an increase in funding for malaria to $3.4 billion annually, up from $1.2 billion, to improve access to artemisinin-based drugs and insecticide-treated bed nets. Estimating the global burden of disease is a challenging task, and public health experts often need to make significant adjustments to their calculations. Last year, the WHO revised its estimate of AIDS virus infections to 33 million from 40 million due to new data from India. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also adjusted its estimate of HIV infections in Americans, increasing it by 40 percent with improved reporting methods. According to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, less than one-third of the organization's member states have reliable disease monitoring systems, particularly for diseases like malaria which can be mistaken for the flu. Chan announced that the malaria report will now be issued annually to provide decision-makers with up-to-date information on the disease. She emphasized the importance of accurate information and analysis due to the increased funding and efforts to reduce the malaria burden in recent years. Novartis AG's medication Coartem is utilized for the treatment of malaria, and other pharmaceutical companies, such as Austria's Intercell, are also working on developing malaria vaccines. However, it is anticipated that it will be several years before any of these vaccines are available on the market. Malaria is most common in Africa, where the World Health Organization (WHO) uses climate data on heat and humidity to predict the number of cases, as these factors affect mosquito breeding. Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania were identified by the WHO as the countries with the highest number of malaria-related deaths in 2006. In addition to Africa, countries such as India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are also significantly impacted by malaria.