Bahrain Health Ministry to celebrate World Malaria Day today

TDT | Manama                                                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com    

Reported by Julia Cassano

The Ministry of Health joins the international community in celebrating World Malaria Day, which falls on April 25 every year.

This is in support of the efforts of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is aiming to improve people’s access to prevention from life-threatening diseases.

It also aims to raise awareness on the importance of prevention as it is a basic strategy to reduce the spread of malaria. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, malaria continues to be a major public health concern.

According to WHO, malaria is a preventable and treatable disease that continues to have a devastating impact on the health and livelihood of people around the world. In 2020, there were an estimated 241 million new cases of malaria and 627,000 malaria-related deaths in 85 countries.

Sadly, children under the age of 5 accounted for more than two-thirds of deaths, living in the WHO African region. In the past, malaria was one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the Kingdom from 1936 to 1976.

However, at the beginning of 1977, the Ministry of Health asked WHO to send advisors to assess the situation in Bahrain, and help control the cases. The government put forth great efforts and resources to combat the disease and established anti-malaria programmes.

Fortunately, after 1977, the number of indigenous cases decreased and attained a zero level from 1979 onwards. The success of the malaria control programme in eliminating the indigenous transmission of malaria since 1979 is largely due to the spraying operations controlling the breeding places of both the adult mosquito and its larvae.

Since 1982, Bahrain was officially declared malaria-free by WHO, and is among the first countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region to combat and eliminate malaria.