Cape Verde has become the fourth country in Africa to eliminate malaria.

Algeria, Morocco and Mauritius were certified malaria-free in 2019, 2010 and 1973 respectively.

Cape Verde regularly experienced severe epidemics across all the archipelago’s 10 islands. However, since the 1980s, malaria had been confined to only two islands, Santiago and Boa Vista, both of which have not recorded cases since 2017.

The WHO said on Friday the country’s “long journey” to elimination included free treatment and testing for all new arrivals and systematic surveillance and mapping of mosquito breeding sites throughout the year.

These structures will remain in place to help the country fight other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever.

“I salute the government and people of Cape Verde for their unwavering commitment and resilience in their journey to eliminating malaria,” said WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Cape Verde’s success is the latest in the global fight against malaria, and gives us hope that with existing tools, as well as new ones including vaccines, we can dare to dream of a malaria-free world.”

(Guardian)