The World Health Organization (WHO) certified on Monday (11.6.2018) that malaria has been eliminated in Paraguay, the first country in the Americas to receive this certification since Cuba received it in 1973.
“It is a great pleasure for me to certify Today Paraguay is officially free of malaria“We are committed to ensuring that the world’s people are protected against the coronavirus,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, according to the statement.
Malaria is a disease caused by parasites whose vectors are various species of the mosquito of the genus Anopheles, which spreads the epidemic with its bites.
The WHO director added: "Exemplary achievements like Paraguay's show what is possible. If malaria can be eliminated in one country, it can be eliminated in all."
In 2016, the WHO identified Paraguay as one of the 21 countries that had the potential to eliminate malaria by 2020. With the “E-2020 initiative”, WHO is supporting these countries that are redoubling their efforts in activities to become malaria-free countries. Other countries in the Americas participating in the E-2020 initiative are: Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Suriname.
The road to saying goodbye to malaria is neither easy nor short. As the WHO recalls in its letter, Paraguay began its fight against malaria in the 1950s: “Systematically developed policies and programs to control and eliminate it, a major public health challenge for a country that reported more than 80.000 cases of the disease in the 1940s.”
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