UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on the international community to provide the necessary funding to combat malaria, which kills one child every minute.

In his message to mark the World Malaria Day, which falls every year on April 25, Ban urge the global health community, including political leaders in endemic countries, to maintain their commitment to provide universal access to malaria interventions and end needless suffering from this preventable and treatable disease.

Stressing that despite remarkable progress in recent years, the UN chief called for countries to collectively pledge to close the near 3 billion US dollars funding gap to achieve universal coverage in Africa up to 2015, and ultimately eliminate the disease.

To prevent malaria from resurging, and to continue to alleviate suffering, especially in the countries with the highest malaria burden, "the international community needs to provide the necessary funding to protect all at-risk groups and support research and innovation to develop new tools," Ban said.

"Malaria continues to inflict a major toll on least developed countries primarily in Africa and millions of people still lack access to life-saving interventions," Ban said. "Emerging resistance of the malaria parasite to drugs, and mosquitoes to insecticides, are further complicating efforts to combat this persistent threat to lives and productivity."

Malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes, infects 219 million people and kills nearly 660,000 people around the world every year, with most of the deaths occurring in Africa.

"Controlling malaria does more than improve human health. It boosts social well-being and economic development," he said, while explaining "Invest in the future. Defeat malaria," the theme for this year's global World Malaria Day campaign.

The World Malaria Day was established by the World Health Organization (WHO) member states during the 2007 World Health Assembly.