The World Health Organisation website has a comprehensive section on malaria, and its Global Malaria Programme microsite contains very useful and up to date information on the disease and the measures used to contain it.

The Roll Back Malaria website provides details on what the world’s main players are doing to limit the personal and economic damage caused by the disease. Its annual report for 2008 is available here.

The WHO has fact sheets and information on various aspects of the disease and its effects here.

Read about the latest efforts to produce an effective vaccine against the disease at the website of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

Details of the impact of the disease in Africa, where the vast majority of deaths occur, are available on the Africa Fighting Malaria website: A roundup of news stories on malaria in Africa is included on the AllAfrica website.

Malaria.org is the home of Malaria Foundation International. It's not the best-designed site out there, but it has many interesting sections. However, some of the background pieces haven't been updated for years, so proceed with caution.

The disease is approached from an academic perspective at Malaria Journal which is a peer-reviewed online journal containing many scientific papers and lively comment on the topic.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention website looks at the global problem of malaria and notes that even though the disease was ostensibly eradicated in North America in the 1950s, people continue to die from it.

Meanwhile, advice and information for health professionals are available at the Health Protection Agency's Malaria Reference Laboratory pages.