2024-01-12 19:08:08
Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Atlantic, on Friday became the third country in Africa where malaria is officially considered eradicated while the disease continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people on the continent each year.
Cape Verde, an island state of around 500,000 inhabitants, is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa for 50 years, and Mauritius in 1973, which the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes as having completely eliminated malaria.
The WHO speaks in a press release of “significant success in global health”.
More than 40 states have achieved the same certification, awarded when a country provides evidence that the chain of household mosquito transmission has been interrupted nationally for at least three consecutive years.
In Africa, in addition to Mauritius and Cape Verde, Algeria was declared malaria-free in 2019.
Several hundred thousand deaths
Malaria, however, continues to cause the death of an estimated 608,000 people in 2022, with nearly 250 million infections worldwide, says the WHO website. The fifty African countries bear a disproportionate share of the toll, with 580,000 deaths, or 95% of the global total, and 94% of contaminations. Children under five years old represent 80% of deaths in Africa.
“Cape Verde’s success is a ray of hope for the African region and beyond. It demonstrates that with strong political will, effective policies, community engagement and multi-sector collaboration, eliminating malaria is a goal achievable,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, quoted by the organization.
This success, following others, “makes us hope that, thanks to existing or new tools, notably vaccines, we can begin to dream of a world without malaria”, adds the Director General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He handed over the certification to Cape Verdean Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva on Friday in the capital Praia.
Bites from infected mosquitoes
Malaria is transmitted to humans mainly through the bites of certain types of infected female mosquitoes and occurs mainly in the Tropics. It can also be transmitted through blood transfusions and contaminated needles. It can be mild, with symptoms like fever and headache, but can also cause death within 24 hours with the parasite P. falciparum, which is most common in Africa.
The fight once morest malaria has long consisted mainly of prevention with the use of mosquito nets or the taking of preventive medications, and the use of insecticides. However, the WHO writes on its site to recommend two vaccines since 2021.
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