The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan for achieving elimination of malaria in their territories. The certification follows a sustained, century-long effort to stamp out the disease by the 2 countries. With this announcement, a total of 41 countries and 1 territory have been certified as malaria-free by WHO, including 21 countries in the European Region.
- Certification of malaria elimination is the official recognition by WHO of a country’s malaria-free status.
- The certification is granted when a country has shown – with rigorous, credible evidence – that the chain of indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes has been interrupted nationwide for at least the past three consecutive years.
- A country must also demonstrate the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.
- Azerbaijan detected its last case of locally transmitted Plasmodium vivax (P.vivax) malaria in 2012 and Tajikistan in 2014.
- In South-Asia, Maldives and Sri Lanka have been declared Malaria free by WHO.
