‘South Africa could be malaria-free by 2020’

First the good news, more than half of the countries in the world have eliminated malaria. The bad news is that there is a serious threat of spread of Plasmodi-um falciparum to India and Africa. According to a rec-ent study published in the Lancet, elimination of regional P falciparum transmission is recognised as the only acceptable response to this threat.

“Merely containing resistance has been deemed insufficient,” said the Lancet. As per the study, between 2007 and 2013, four countries (Armenia, Morocco, Turkmenistan, and UAE) were certified as malaria-free by the World Health Organisation, and eight more have prevented the reintroduction of malaria for at least three years.

“Through targeted action and cross-border collaboration, South Africa (where malaria is most wid-espread) has the pot-ential to eliminate malaria by 2020,” a WHO report published on Monday said.

The other countri-es the WHO believes could achieve this objective are China, Malaysia and South Korea, eight Latin American nations, as well as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Timor-Leste and Nepal. Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus eradicated malaria in 2015, according to WHO.

However, about 5000 imported cases were reported largely from Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan-indicating the need to maintain regional collaboration to prevent the re-establishment of local transmission through active surveillance and cross-border coordination with other EURO countries, as well as neighbouring countries in the eastern Mediterranean region (EMRO) and the southeast Asian region (SEARO). "No local cases had been reported in the EURO region as of September, 2015," it further said.