FIVE people die every hour from malaria in the Asia-Pacific, despite the disease being preventable and treatable.
But Australia's aid agency AusAID is confident authorities can cut the number of cases and deaths by 75 per cent by 2015.
"I believe our goal is an achievable one," AusAID Director-General Peter Baxter told an international malaria conference in Sydney on Wednesday.
The biggest malaria threat in the Asia-Pacific, where Australia spends three-quarters of its $5 billion aid budget, is the emergence of a drug-resistant strain in the Greater Mekong region of Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam.
Some 30 million people contract the disease in the region each year, resulting in 42,000 deaths, according to latest figures for 2010.
The worldwide count is 216 million cases annually and 655,000 deaths, although unofficial estimates put that figure at up to 900,000, the vast bulk of them in Africa.
...Mr Baxter said experts had warned of a 25 per cent increase in deaths if drug-resistant malaria reached Africa, meaning the global death toll could surge by 200,000.
He said malaria deaths had been cut by 20 per cent in the past decade but worldwide funding to fight the disease was under threat.
"The progress is at risk," he said.
"For every dollar invested in malaria control and treatment $2 is returned through saved medical and other costs."
In a televised welcome to delegates, including ministers from 10 Asia-Pacific countries, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: "My hope is we can truly save lives in the Asia-Pacific.
"Prevention, treatment and cure are within our grasp if we have the will. We know what has to be done."
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, in another televised address, said wonderful progress had been made in fighting malaria but the world had reached a "crucial" moment.
"I am particularly worried about drug-resistant malaria," he said.
"If it escapes the Asia-Pacific we could face dire consequences."
Some 700 Australians are infected annually while travelling abroad.
Australia has been free of malaria since 1982.
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