Africa-Press – Cape verde. The World Health Organization (WHO) certified Cape Verde as a malaria-free country, “marking a significant achievement in global health”, it announced this Friday in a statement.The Portuguese-speaking country joins the group of 43 countries and a territory that has already been certified as a malaria-free country by the WHO. Cape Verde is the third country to be certified in the WHO African region, joining Mauritius and Algeria, which were certified in 1973 and 2019.
The African continent suffers most from the disease, says the WHO, hosting 95% of global cases and 96% of deaths related to the condition in 2021. “Certification of elimination will drive positive development on many fronts for Cabo Green”, indicates the organization.
The systems and structures built to eliminate the disease “strengthened the health system and will be used to combat other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue fever”, a disease with an outbreak recorded since the end of the year on some Cape Verdean islands.
The measure will benefit tourism: “travelers from non-malaria-endemic regions can now travel to the Cape Verde islands without fear of local infections” and without needing “the potential inconvenience of preventive treatment measures”.
“This has the potential to attract more visitors and boost socio-economic activities in a country where tourism represents approximately 25 percent of GDP,” he added.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, cited in the statement, hailed “the Government and people of Cape Verde for their unwavering commitment and resilience in the journey to eliminate malaria”. The person responsible is in Cape Verde, where he is participating today in an official ceremony announcing the eradication of malaria.
“WHO’s certification that Cape Verde is malaria-free is a testament to the power of strategic public health planning, collaboration and sustained effort to protect and promote health. Cape Verde’s success is the latest in the global fight against malaria and gives us hope that, with existing tools as well as new ones, including vaccines, we can dare to dream of a malaria-free world,” he added. .
“Certification as a malaria-free country has a huge impact and it took a long time to get to this point: in terms of the country’s external image, this is very good, both for tourism and for everyone else”, said the Prime Minister from Cape Verde, Ulisses Correia e Silva, cited in the same statement.
The elimination certificate is granted when a country demonstrates – with rigorous and credible evidence – that the chain of indigenous transmission of malaria by Anopheles mosquitoes has been interrupted throughout the country during the last three consecutive years. A country must also demonstrate the ability to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.
Before the 1950s, all of Cape Verde’s islands were affected by malaria: serious epidemics occurred regularly in the most densely populated areas until spraying eliminated it in 1967 and 1983. However, subsequent failures led to the return of the disease.
Since the last peak in malaria cases in the late 1980s, malaria in Cape Verde has been confined to two islands: Santiago and Boa Vista, which are now malaria-free since 2017. “Cape Verde’s achievement is a beacon of hope for the African Region and beyond”, said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
Among Portuguese-speaking countries, Mozambique and Angola are among the five most affected in the world, according to the 2023 edition of the annual report on malaria published by the WHO.
The organization announced two weeks ago that the R21 malaria vaccine will join its list of “prequalified vaccines,” a requirement to enter the distribution programs of humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) or the GAVI Vaccine Alliance. Malaria affects around 250 million patients worldwide every year and causes more than 600,000 deaths.
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