- The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan as malaria-free for eliminating the Anopheles mosquito-borne disease in their territories.
- The declaration came on March 29, 2023, after an extensive, century-long campaign by the two nations to eradicate the disease.
- The global health body certifies a country as malaria-free, typically when the latter can provide evidence showing the malaria transmission cycle has been broken for at least the last three years.
- “The people and governments of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have worked long and hard to eliminate malaria,” said WHO DirectorGeneral Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
- This certification is given when a country has not reported a case of indigenous malaria infection by female Anopheles mosquitoes for the last three years.
- With this announcement, a total of 41 countries and the European region comprising 21 countries have been certified as malaria-free by WHO.
- According to the World Malaria Report 2022, the number of malaria-endemic countries is 11, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Niger and the United Republic of Tanzania are the ones that have recorded a decline in malaria deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan as malaria-free
