Cape Verde earns historic malaria-free status in 2024

 

 

A sub-Saharan African country has been proclaimed malaria-free for the first time in 50 years.

Cape Verde was granted the classification by the World Health Organization (WHO) since it has not reported a single case of local transmission in three years. Experts have described this as a significant accomplishment. Malaria is a major killer across the continent. In 2022, 580,000 individuals in Africa died from the disease, accounting for 95% of global mortality. The sickness is caused by a complicated parasite that is transferred through mosquito bites.

Vaccines are increasingly being utilized in some areas, but the most effective strategy to prevent malaria is to monitor the condition and minimize mosquito bites.

Cape Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa, has taken years to improve its health infrastructure and provide access to diagnosis and treatment for all cases.

Surveillance officers have detected cases early and controlled mosquitos.

Cape Verde’s malaria management plan also includes free care and diagnostic services for international tourists and migrants, with the goal of halting the tide of cases imported from mainland Africa.

“This victory is the result of the hard work and dedication of numerous health professionals, colleagues, communities, and foreign partners. It demonstrates what can be accomplished through a shared commitment to improve public health,” Cape Verde’s Health Minister, Dr. Filomena Gonçalves, told the BBC.

Dr Dorothy Achu Fosah of the WHO Africa office stated that her organization was “excited and pleased” with the outcomes and that malaria has been “kicked out” of the country. According to health professionals, Cape Verde’s success serves as a model for other tiny countries on the continent, demonstrating that containment and elimination programs can be effective. Malaria was originally present on all nine of Cape Verde’s populated islands, but in recent years has only been identified on one, Sáo Tiago, where the final efforts have been focused.

According to Dr. Achu of the WHO, the country’s prosperity is also due to its archipelago status.

When compared to a continuous land mass, it is easier to map out the areas most impacted by the disease and see how it spreads from one island to the next. In badly impacted nations such as Nigeria, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the population is extremely mobile and frequently crosses borders, making it difficult for a single country to eradicate the illness on its own. Cape Verde’s success “gives us hope that with existing tools, as well as new ones, such as vaccines, we can dare to dream of a malaria-free world,” WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated.