Malaria-free Zone: Sri Lanka’s victory over the disease is remarkable

“Sri Lanka has now completed three consecutive years without indigenous malaria, an achievement seen never before”, the campaign said.

The real achievement of Sri Lanka being declared free of malaria by the World Health Organisation this week will be what happens in the years that follow: millions of people will be spared from becoming infected and possibly dying from an eradicable disease.

Calling it a “remarkable public health achievement”, WHO certified the tropical island nation of having eliminated malaria – a life-threatening disease caused by mosquito bites.

Sri Lankan President awarded WHO Award for Excellence in Public Health – 2016 Mon, Sep 5, 2016, 09:17 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Director of Sri Lanka’s Anti-Malaria Campaign Dr. Risintha Premaratne said, “Our biggest challenge is to ensure monitoring”. Considering the fact that Sri Lanka receives four times as much rainfall than India, the elimination of malaria is an wonderful effort by the Government of Sri Lanka. It meets annually to discuss its programmes and budget which is hosted by a member country. Further, to maintain elimination and ensure the parasite is not reintroduced to the country, Sri Lanka’s anti-malaria campaign is working closely with local authorities as well as global partners to keep up the surveillance and the response capacity, and to screen high-risk populations entering the country.

World Health Organization declares Sri Lanka malaria-free. The anti-malaria campaign also made a good use of effective communication, health education and community engagement to garner support to eradicate malaria from the country. As a part of the efforts, the Government must increase the number of mobile malaria clinics in high transmission areas which will help in prompt and effective treatment besides reducing the parasite reservoir and the possibility of further transmission.

Sri Lanka stepped up its battle against the killer disease at the turn of the millennium after malaria cases soared in the 1970s and 1980s.

But within months, cases began to appear with renewed intensity, resulting in more than 400,000 cases, according to a University of California San Francisco country profile.

Other countries that have reached this milestone OF eliminating malaria are United Arab Emirates (2007), Morocco (2010), Turkmenistan (2010), Armenia (2011) and Maldives (2015). In 2015, alone, there an estimated 214 million new cases of malaria, and approximately 4.38 lakhs died of the disease.

Globally, about 3.2 billion people are at risk by malaria which half the world’s population.