Withdrawal of USAID funds threatens decades of progress, say experts, with cuts to research and shortage of mosquito nets putting thousands at risk across the country.
Zimbabwe’s efforts to control malaria have been dealt a huge blow as experts say the disease has returned “with a vengeance” after US aid cuts, with 115 outbreaks recorded in 2025 compared with only one last year.
The sharp rise in cases comes six months after Donald Trump halted critical funding for US research and national response programmes.
The cuts in January, which included funding for tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and malaria programmes, crippled the Zimbabwe Entomological Support Programme in Malaria (Zento) at Africa University in Mutare, which provides the country’s National Malaria Control Programme with scientific research to combat the disease.
Cumulative malaria cases increased by 180% in the first four months of 2025, according to the health ministry, while the number of malaria-related deaths increased by 218%, from 45 in the same period in 2024 to 143 in 2025. As of 26 June, the number of malaria cases had risen to 119,648, with 334 deaths, according to the Zimbabwean health ministry.
The distribution of essential control methods, such as mosquito nets, was also disrupted, leaving hundreds of thousands of people exposed to mosquito bites across the country. The health ministry said in May that 1,615,000 insecticide-treated nets were being distributed but that there was a shortfall of 600,000 due to the withdrawal of US funding.
Itai Rusike, director of Zimbabwe’s Community Working Group on Health, said funding shortfalls were jeopardising the country’s significant gains against malaria over the past 20 years.
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