According to the WHO, insecticide-treated bed nets, rapid tests, treatment and indoor spraying have averted more than 2 billion cases and over 12 million deaths since 2000. Malaria still kills about 600,000 people a year, mostly children under five in Africa. Since 2023, two malaria vaccines have been rolled out in several African countries.
That's the estimate from a WHO-led study published in The Lancet in 2024, covering the half-century since the Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched in 1974. It works out to about six lives saved every minute, mostly infants. The measles vaccine alone accounts for around 60% of those lives.
According to the World Gold Council, about 216,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in all of human history. Because gold is so dense (19.3 tonnes per cubic metre), it would fit in a cube about 22 metres on each side, roughly the height of a seven-storey building. Strikingly, about two-thirds of it has been mined since 1950.