Photo by Ale on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 20 October 2024, the World Health Organization certified Egypt as malaria-free. The decision recognized nearly 100 years of work by the Egyptian government and its people against a disease that has been present along the Nile since ancient times.
Key facts
The milestone covers a country of more than 100 million inhabitants.
It was the third country in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region to be certified, after the United Arab Emirates (2007) and Morocco (2010).
With Egypt, 44 countries and one territory had been certified malaria-free by WHO.
Cases surged to more than 3 million during the Second World War before decades of control work brought the disease under firm control by 2001.
Why it matters
Malaria still kills more than 600,000 people a year, almost all of them in Africa. Egypt shows that even a large country with irrigated farmland and a long history of the disease can stop local transmission for good.
Worth noting
Certification means no locally acquired cases for at least three consecutive years, not that no traveler will ever arrive with malaria. Egypt must keep strong surveillance to stop the disease from returning.