Malaria free Egypt declared following century of effort
Egypt has been declared as free from malaria by the World Health Organization (WHO) in an achievement that the UN public health agency has called “truly historic.”
“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Authorities in the north-African country have launched their first ever efforts to stamp out malaria, the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease, nearly a century ago.
Certification is granted once a country can prove that the transmission chain has been interrupted for at least three consecutive years. Malaria is responsible for over 600,000 people dying every year with the vast majority of them being in Africa. In a statement on Sunday, 20th October, the WHO praised the “government and people” of Egypt for their efforts “end a disease that has been present in the country since ancient times.”
Egypt, it said, was only the third country to be certified by the WHO in its Eastern Mediterranean Region. The first two were the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. Around the world, forty four countries and one territory have also reached the milestone in becoming free from malaria.
But certification, the WHO said, was only “the beginning of a new phase” as it urged Cairo to be on the alert to hold on to its status in being malaria free. To get the WHO certification, a country has to demonstrate the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of the disease’s transmission.
The UN public health agency said that first efforts to limit contact between humans and mosquitoes began in the 1920s when rice cultivation and agricultural crops were banned near homes.
Malaria is caused by a complex parasite that is spread when a mosquito bites someone. Vaccines are now in use in some areas but monitoring the disease and avoiding the insect’s bites are the best way to prevent its spread.
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