South African scientists from the University of Pretoria have revealed how the island nation of Cape Verde achieved a historic victory against malaria, becoming the 43rd country in the world and the third in Africa (out of 62) to be free of the disease. Published material broadcasting Speech.
In mid-January 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially confirmed that Cape Verde was a province whose residents were most at risk from malaria. Previously, only Mauritius in 1973 and Algeria in 2019 had achieved this on the African continent.
There were two attempts to eradicate the disease in the 20th century, but both failed. Indoor treatment with the insecticide DDT in the 1960s stopped transmission of the virus, but an outbreak of the disease occurred on the island of Santiago in 1973, and a major epidemic broke out three to four years later.
The second campaign against malaria in Cape Verde began in 1978 and continued until 1983. As a result, the disease was isolated on two islands – Santiago and Boa Vista. But by 2006, the risk of infection was threatening tourism in the state.
The eventual elimination of malaria in Cape Verde required changes to the national health system and efforts to detect infection early. Despite the successes, the islands suffered their worst outbreak since 1991, with 423 cases in 2017. Just four years later, transmission of the pathogen was finally stopped by combating its vectors, mosquitoes.
Thus, Cape Verde managed to obtain WHO certification by keeping the number of malaria cases at zero for three years.
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Source: Gazeta
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