The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes every April 25 as World Malaria Day, which seeks to eradicate the disease. According to the WHO website, citing the most recent World Malaria Report, “No significant gains were made in reducing malaria cases in the period 2015 to 2017.”

“Globally, the world has made incredible progress against malaria but we are still too far from the endpoint we seek – a world free of malaria,” said WHO director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Every year, the global tally of new malaria cases exceeds 200 million; every 2 minutes, a child dies from this preventable and treatable disease.”

“Individual and community empowerment, through grassroots initiatives like ‘Zero malaria starts with me,’ can play a critical role in driving progress,” he added.

According to the 2018 World Malaria Report, the greater majority of malaria cases, 92 percent, originate from Africa; however, Southeast Asia ranks second.

Earlier this month, Department of Health-Region VI (DOH-6) Entomologist III Maria Lourdes M. Monegro said, after expressing desires to be declared “malaria-free,” Antique is ready for validation.

A DOH validation team is scheduled to arrive in the province towards the end of this month.

She noted, Antique and Negros Occidental are the only provinces of the Western Visayas yet to be declared “malaria-free.”

Monegro explained, one of the proponents for a region to be declared “malaria-free” includes having no reported indigenous cases within the past five years. Indigenous cases refer to malaria patients without a history of traveling to endemic areas./WDJ

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