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Egypt has been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) – an achievement hailed by the UN public health agency as “truly historic”.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n
Egyptian authorities launched their first efforts to stamp out the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease nearly 100 years.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
It said Egypt was the third country to be certified in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, following the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.<\/p>\n
Globally, 44 countries and one territory have reached this milestone.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
To get the WHO certification, a country must demonstrate the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Malaria is caused by a complex parasite which is spread by mosquito bites.<\/p>\n
Vaccines are now being used in some places – but monitoring the disease and avoiding mosquito bites are the most effective ways to prevent malaria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n