Egypt has been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), an achievement hailed by the United Nations public health agency as a “truly historic” achievement.
“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued the Pharaohs now belongs to Egypt’s history,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Egyptian authorities are taking action for the first time in nearly a century to eradicate the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease.
Certification is granted when a country demonstrates that the transmission chain has been interrupted for at least the past three consecutive years. Malaria kills at least 600,000 people every year, almost all of them in Africa.
In a statement on Sunday, the World Health Organization praised “the government and people of Egypt” for their efforts to “end a disease that has existed in the country since ancient times.”
Egypt is the third country to receive certification in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, after the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.
Globally, 44 countries and 1 region have reached this milestone.
But the World Health Organization said the certification was just “the beginning of a new phase” and urged Egypt to remain vigilant in order to maintain its malaria-free status.
To receive certification from the World Health Organization, a country must demonstrate the ability to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.
Egypt’s first efforts to limit human contact with mosquitoes began in the 1920s, when growing rice and crops near homes was banned, the U.N. public health agency said.
Malaria is caused by a complex parasite and is transmitted through mosquito bites.
A vaccine is now being used in some places – but monitoring the disease and avoiding mosquito bites are the most effective ways to prevent malaria.
