The World Health Organization dramatically cut its estimate on Thursday of how many people are infected with malaria every year, attributing the revision to changes in research methods. But the report kept the number of people who died fronMhe disease broadly the same. The United Nations agency said 247 million people contracted malaria in 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available. Its last estimate, issued three years ago and widely cited in government and pharmaceutical circles, was that 350 million to 500 million people caught the mosquito-borne disease each year. The WHO's global death toll from the disease, which is especially deadly for infants, children, and pregnant women, was nearly steady in the new report. It estimated 881,000 died from malaria in 2006, compared with "more than one million" previously. (Reuters)