Egypt has been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) – an achievement hailed by the United Nations public health agency as “truly historic”.
“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that afflicted the pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Egyptian authorities have launched the first efforts to stamp out the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease in nearly 100 years.
Certification is issued when a country can demonstrate that the transmission chain has been interrupted for at least three consecutive previous years. Malaria kills at least 600,000 people each year, nearly all of them in Africa.
In a statement on Sunday, WHO praised “the government and people of Egypt” for their efforts to “end the disease that has existed in the country since ancient times.”
They said Egypt is the third country to be certified in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, after the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.
Globally, 44 countries and one territory have achieved this milestone.
But WHO said the certification was only “the beginning of a new phase”, calling on Egypt to remain vigilant to maintain its malaria-free status.
To obtain WHO certification, a country must demonstrate the ability to prevent re-transmission.
The United Nations’ public health agency said the first efforts to limit contact between people and mosquitoes in Egypt began in the 1920s when the country banned rice growing and the cultivation of agricultural crops near homes.
Malaria is caused by a complex parasite spread through mosquito bites.
Vaccines are now being used in some places – but monitoring the disease and avoiding mosquito bites are the most effective ways to prevent malaria.
