A new study disclosed that around 125.2 million preggies are prone to malaria annually.

Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan parasite occurring in the tropic and sub-tropic, is the major cause of the majority of malaria fatalities.

But, the most common type of malaria is P. vivax malaria, which also thrives in temperate areas.

The majority of malarial casualties are among young kids in sub-Saharan Africa but expecting mothers and their unborn babies are at high risk of having malaria.

Approx. 10,000 women and 200,000 infants pass away annually due to malaria in pregnancy, which often results in spontaneous abortions, premature births, and low-birth-weight births.

Earlier, malaria estimates were only available for Africa. But now researchers have estimated the sizes of populations at risk of malaria in 2007 by combining maps of the global limits of P. vivax and P. falciparum transmission with data on population densities.

Earlier, such figures were limited to malaria risk in Africa.

However, the scientists have calculated the volumes of populations exposed to malaria in 2007 by uniting maps of the worldwide limits of P. vivax and P. falciparum contagion with figures on population densities.

They utilized statistics from a range of sources in order to find out the annual number of pregnancies in each country.

They found out the annual number of maternities prone to malaria risk in each country by multiplying the total number of pregnancies in the country by the fraction of the population living within the spatial boundaries of malaria transmission in that country.

The study contributes to the universal understanding of malaria risk during pregnancy.

In the year 2007, 54.7 million pregnancies happened in regions with steady P. falciparum malaria and a further 70.5 million in regions with exceptionally low malaria transmission or with P. vivax only.

This is the first time species specific risks have been figured out worldwide for malaria during pregnancy.

The study results appeared in PLoS Medicine.