September 8, 2016.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (September 5th) that malaria, transmitted to humans by the bites of infected mosquitoes, had been officially eradicated from Sri Lanka.
The country is free from malaria
It’s official, malaria has definitely disappeared from Sri Lanka. The country has ” seen presenting the certificate from the World Health Organization confirming that the country is malaria free Sri Lankan Health Minister said Tuesday (September 6th). However, ” in the mid-twentieth century, the country was one of the most affected by malaria ”, Said WHO Regional Director Poonam Khetrapal Singh. ” Sri Lanka’s progress is remarkable In the fight against disease.
In 1999, the country’s authorities indeed launched a major disease eradication plan. At that time, Sri Lanka still had 265,000 cases out of 20 million inhabitants. A telephone line was open 24 hours a day, patients were subjected to appropriate treatment, mosquito nets were distributed and the health system was completely redesigned.
180 cases of malaria in 3 years
180 cases of malaria have been detected in the country in the past three years, but all have been contracted abroad, the WHO said. This is a ” extremely encouraging news », Rejoiced Artur Scherf, head of a unit at the Institut Pasteur, at the microphone of RFI. According to him, eradication was possible because Sri Lanka is an island, “ it controls the migration of infected people “.
According to the WHO, About 3.2 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, are at risk of contracting malaria. In 2015, 214 million cases of malaria were detected and 438,000 people died. But the death rate fell sharply between 2000 and 2015: nearly 6.2 million people could have been saved.
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