“Truly historic.” The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday, October 20, welcomed the total eradication of malaria in Egypt, which required nearly a century of effort. “Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that struck the pharaohs now belongs to its history and not its future,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
«The certification of Egypt as a malaria-free country is truly historic and demonstrates the commitment of the Egyptian people and government to get rid of this ancestral scourge“, he added.
Globally, 44 countries and one territory have been certified free of malaria, also called malaria. Certification of the elimination of this potentially deadly disease is granted by the WHO when a country has proven that the chain of mosquito transmission has been interrupted nationally for at least the previous three consecutive years. A country must also demonstrate its ability to prevent reestablishment of transmission.
According to figures from the World Health Organization, malaria kills more than 600,000 people on the planet each year, 95% of them in Africa.
Source: www.liberation.fr
