GNV News – October 23, 2024

Because Egypt saw no malaria transmission anywhere in the country for three years, the World Health Organization (WHO) on October 20, 2024 officially certified Egypt as a country that has eliminated malaria. In the Middle East and North Africa, besides Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (2007) and Morocco (2010) have in recent years eliminated malaria.

Egypt has focused on malaria control for more than a century. For example, it carried out large-scale prevention campaigns to reduce mosquito numbers through insecticides and improvements to drainage infrastructure, and to promote the use of bed nets, and it has also advanced the development of health-care infrastructure needed for early detection and treatment. Although cases were greatly reduced in the 1990s, limited transmission was still observed in some areas. Elimination has now been achieved, but it will remain necessary to continue prevention activities.

This disease, which infects humans when they are bitten by female Anopheles mosquitoes carrying the Plasmodium parasite, claims more than 600,000 lives every year, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.

Learn more about malaria → “Malaria: Will the gains achieved in Africa be lost?”

Learn more about Egypt → “Egypt: Behind the regime’s hold on power”

Community health worker training (Photo: USAID Egypt / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])