With no recorded cases since 2017, the archipelago has had a long journey to become free of the disease, which killed 608,000 people globally in 2022

With no recorded cases since 2017, the archipelago has had a long journey to become free of the disease, which killed 608,000 people globally in 2022

Cape Verde has become the fourth country in Africa and the 44th in the world to eliminate malaria.

Africa has the highest number of cases of the mosquito-borne disease in the world. In 2022, 94% of the 249 million cases globally and 95% of deaths were recorded on the continent.

Algeria, Morocco and Mauritius were certified malaria-free in 2019, 2010 and 1973 respectively.

Cape Verde regularly experienced severe epidemics across all the archipelago’s 10 islands. However, since the 1980s, malaria had been confined to only two islands, Santiago and Boa Vista, both of which have not recorded cases since 2017.

    • AlpacaChariot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      Not much good news going around at the moment is there. All the more reaaon to celebrate this, which can’t have been easy or quick and can only have been achieved a result of hard work over many years.

      • muntedcrocodile@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        6 months ago

        Actually if u look at statistics humanity has been doing more good than bad over the last 100years ish it just doesnt drive clicks so bobody writes articles

        • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Actually if u look at statistics humanity has been doing more good than bad over the last 100years ish

          Where do you find statistics about something evaluative like that? Who gets to decide what’s good or bad for the sake of the statistics, and what’s the unit of measurement?

          I’d add that a failure to appreciate the good is not only due to the media’s fondness for what distresses us, but also because there is always some crisis to worry about, and the present is the only time that contains active worries for us. The past crises aren’t active and don’t distress us so much any more. So the present always feels uniquely problematic, but it’s a kind of illusion of perspective.

          That said, we are killing the planet, and we’ve never done that before. So perhaps we do have a different level of crisis right now.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    5·
    6 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Cape Verde has become the fourth country in Africa and the 44th in the world to eliminate malaria.

    The WHO said on Friday the country’s “long journey” to elimination included free treatment and testing for all new arrivals and systematic surveillance and mapping of mosquito breeding sites throughout the year.

    These structures will remain in place to help the country fight other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever.

    “I salute the government and people of Cape Verde for their unwavering commitment and resilience in their journey to eliminating malaria,” said WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

    “Cape Verde’s success is the latest in the global fight against malaria, and gives us hope that with existing tools, as well as new ones including vaccines, we can dare to dream of a malaria-free world.”

    “The certification as a malaria-free country has a huge impact, and it’s taken a long time to get to this point,” said Cape Verde’s prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva.

    The original article contains 370 words, the summary contains 163 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • pan_troglodytes@programming.devEnglish
    27·
    6 months ago

    great news, but 6+ years of not having any cases of a disease that is spread by mosquitos - in an environment that is ideal for mosquitos to breed in - is a bit of a hollow victory. maybe check back in 44 years.