6 African Countries To Be Malaria Free By 2020
According to a new report released by the World Health Organization, six African countries could be completely Malaria free by the year 2020.
Today, April 25th, marks World Malaria Day and the report was released by WHO as another way to bring attention to the deadly disease.
The World Health Organisation said that they firmly believe six African countries could be Malaria free within the next four years.
Africa is the continent where Malaria is most widespread. The countries that are heaviest hit by the disease – and the 6 that the WHO hopes to have Malaria free by 2020 – include Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.
“…[sic] WHO estimates that 21 countries are in a position to achieve this goal [of eliminating Malaria] including six countries in the African Region, where the burden of the disease is heaviest,” the WHO report read.
The World Health Organization has included the elimination of Malaria in these African countries as one of their goals for their 2016 – 2030 programme against Malaria.
They also said that they are confident to completely wipe out the disease in at least 10 countries in the next 10 years.
Elsewhere in the world, Malaria has been completely eradicated.
According to a WHO report, Malaria has been wiped out and no new cases of Malaria have been reported in areas such as Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus since last year.
It is also estimated that a whopping 214 million people contracted Malaria last year. Of these 214 million, it is believed that 438 000 died from the disease.
