CAIRO, Egypt
Egypt has been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) - an achievement hailed by the UN public health agency as "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.
Egyptian authorities launched
their first efforts to stamp out the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease
nearly 100 years.
Certification is granted when
a country proves that the transmission chain is interrupted for at least the
previous three consecutive years. Malaria kills at least 600,000 people every
year, nearly all of them in Africa.
In a statement on Sunday, the
WHO praised "the Egyptian government and people" for their efforts to
"end a disease that has been present in the country since ancient
times".
It said Egypt was the third
country to be certified in the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region, following
the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.
Globally, 44 countries and one
territory have reached this milestone.
But the WHO said the
certification was only "the beginning of a new phase", urging Egypt
to be on the alert to preserve its malaria-free status.
To get the WHO certification,
a country must demonstrate the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of
transmission.
The UN public health agency
said first efforts to limit human-mosquito contact in Egypt began in the 1920s
when it banned rice cultivation and agricultural crops near homes.
Malaria is caused by a complex
parasite which is spread by 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.
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