Cape Verde earns historic malaria-free status in West Africa

A country in Africa has been declared free from malaria for the first time in 50 years.

Cape Verde got a special status from the World Health Organization (WHO) because it hasn’t had any local transmission of a disease for three years.

Experts say this is a big accomplishment.

Malaria kills a lot of people in Africa. In 2022, 580,000 people died from the disease in Africa, which is 95% of all the deaths around the world.

The sickness is because of a complicated germ that is passed on by mosquito bites.

Some places are using vaccines to prevent malaria, but the best way to stop the disease is to keep an eye on it and avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes.

Cape Verde, a tiny group of islands near West Africa, has worked for many years to improve its health care and make sure everyone can get diagnosed and treated for illnesses.

The surveillance officers have been finding and controlling cases of diseases early, and also getting rid of mosquitoes.

Cape Verde has a plan to control malaria. They provide free care and testing for people from other countries who come to visit or move there. They want to stop the spread of malaria from Africa to Cape Verde.

This success shows how many health professionals, collaborators, communities, and international partners worked hard and were dedicated to the cause. “Cape Verde’s Health Minister, Dr. Filomena Gonçalves, told the BBC that it shows what can be done when people work together to make public health better. ”

Dr Dorothy Achu Fosah, from the WHO Africa office, said her organization is happy with the results and with the fact that malaria has been eliminated from the country.

Health experts say that Cape Verde has done an impressive job in controlling and getting rid of a disease. Other small countries can learn from their success and see that their methods can be effective.

Malaria used to be on all of Cape Verde’s nine inhabited islands, but now it’s only on one island, Sáo Tiago. The last efforts to get rid of it are focused there.

DrAchu from the WHO said that the country being made up of many islands is also a big reason for its success.

It’s easier to track the spread of the disease on an island compared to a big piece of land.

In Nigeria, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, many people move between countries, which makes it hard for one country to get rid of the disease by itself.

DrTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said that Cape Verde’s success in fighting malaria gives us hope that we can use tools, including vaccines, to dream of a world without malaria.

Mauritius, an island nation in Africa, was the last country in sub-Saharan Africa to be declared free from malaria in 1973. Algeria, in the northern part of Africa, got this title in 2019.