Recent report from the WHO estimates that more than half a billion people suffer from the deadliest form of P. falciparum malaria in India, other Asian countries , Africa & elsewhere.

The new study by an Oxford University team at the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories in Kenya states that there were roughly 515 million clinical cases of malaria in 2002, adding that the actual figure could lie anywhere between 300 to 660 million.

Amongst these cases two-thirds of the cases were in Africa. Leading scientist Robert snow said his study "demonstrated that nearly 25% of worldwide cases occurred in south-east Asia & Western Pacific" & that these were of the deadly P. falciparum.

According to epidemiologist Eline Korenromp, who prepared WHO figures suggested that about 70% of the falciparum burden was estimated to occur in Africa & about 20% in south-east Asia.