South Africa amongst countries rewarded for malaria elimination efforts
Pretoria: South Africa is amongst the countries to receive global awards from the World Health Organization for their efforts to achieve important milestone towards malaria elimination.
This is the first time they have given the awards outside the countries that have achieved elimination.
Other countries which walked away with prestigious awards during the 4th Annual Global Forum of Malaria-Eliminating Countries, currently taking place in Cape Town, include China and El Salvador for achieving malaria free status.
The South African government is committed to eliminate malaria and as such a solid investment case was developed and received through a conditional grant.
The country has put these resources to good use and insured that its programmes were capacitated, and necessary resources were availed to implement its malaria elimination strategies.
The implementation of these strategies was not deployed in silo but in collaboration with supporting partners.
This award could not be possible without combined efforts from Research Institutions, Sister Departments, our Malaria Elimination partners- the Elimination 8 and MOSASWA-LSDI2, given that malaria elimination needs multi-sectoral approach.
The South African government is working to eliminate malaria.
Malaria elimination involves a systematic process of developing strategies and ensuring their robust implementation. Malaria is a preventable and curable disease. If not diagnosed and treated early, it can also be fatal.
