{"id":14264,"date":"2021-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/08-03-2021\/el-salvador-becomes-malaria-free\/"},"modified":"2021-03-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T00:00:00","slug":"el-salvador-becomes-malaria-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-03-2021\/el-salvador-becomes-malaria-free","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador Becomes Malaria-free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News: El Salvador has officially been declared malaria-free<\/strong> by the World Health Organization (WHO) after no reports of new indigenous cases of the disease since 2017.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The country is the<strong> first in Central America<\/strong> to achieve the WHO\u2019s malaria-free certification status and third in the Americas overall <strong>after Argentina in 2019 and Paraguay in 2018.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Around half of the world&#8217;s population is at risk of malaria, particularly those living in lower-income countries and in the Americas, 765,000 cases were reported in 2018.\n<ul>\n<li>Countries like El Salvador \u201care living proof and inspiration\u201d for all.<\/li>\n<li>Despite the Corona Pandemic, El Salvador maintained Zero Malaria Cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Malaria Free Status<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Globally, 38 countries and territories have achieved malaria-free status.<\/li>\n<li>It is a WHO certification for which countries can apply for when <strong>there have been no local cases for three consecutive years<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>India is yet to attain Malaria free status<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>India has a target to eliminate Malaria by 2030.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Certification is different from elimination.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A country can only be certified, if it has proven beyond reasonable doubt that it has had zero local malaria transmission for three years or more.<\/li>\n<li>Eg. China has had no indigenous malaria cases for the third year and has also made the formal request for certification.<\/li>\n<li>In 2019, Belize and Cabo Verde reported zero indigenous malaria cases for the first time since 2000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Global Picture<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Malaria is one of the world\u2019s leading killers, with more than 200 million cases and over 400,000 deaths each year, despite being preventable and curable if diagnosed early.<\/li>\n<li>It also takes its economic toll, cutting economic growth rates by as much as 1.3 per cent in countries with high burden rates, according to WHO figures.<\/li>\n<li>But good news is continuous shrinkage of the malaria map.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, in 2015, the World Health Assembly adopted the <strong>global technical strategy for malaria<\/strong>, with milestones for 2020, 2025 and 2030.\n<ul>\n<li>The 15 year strategy set a target to reduce the global malaria cases and mortality rates by at least 90 per cent by 2030.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>According to the <strong>World Malaria Report 2020<\/strong>, 1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million malaria-related deaths have been averted since the year 2000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Local, regional and global collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>E-2020:<\/strong> Group of 21 countries identified in 2016 that had potential to eliminate malaria by 2020.\n<ul>\n<li>El Salvador worked hard as its member despite the financial crunch.<\/li>\n<li>The country deployed a community-based approach, complemented by collaboration with neighbouring countries to help prevent malaria from crossing country borders<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>New country-driven approach<\/strong>\u00a0 titled <strong>\u201cHigh burden to high impact\u201d<\/strong> was launched by WHO in countries where malaria cases increased in 2018 as compared to 2017.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Indian Initiatives<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>National Framework for Malaria Elimination 2016:<\/strong> It was framed by India on the lines of Global Technical Strategy for Malaria, 2016-2030 of WHO.<\/li>\n<li><strong>National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (NSPME)<\/strong> <strong>(2017-22):<\/strong> Based on the National Framework, India launched a plan for malaria elimination.\n<ul>\n<li>It gives year wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria in the next 5 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Malaria Elimination Research Alliance, India (MERA-India): <\/strong>It was established by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).\n<ul>\n<li>It is a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Odisha\u2019s Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (DAMaN) Initiative: <\/strong>\u00a0Aims to deliver services to the most inaccessible and hardest hit people of the State.\n<ul>\n<li>The initiative has in-built innovative strategies to combat asymptomatic malaria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fce5cd; width:6.5in\">\n<p><strong>About Malaria<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Causal organism:<\/strong> <strong>Plasmodium<\/strong> (Protozoa).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vector:<\/strong> infected female <strong>Anopheles<\/strong> mosquitoes<\/li>\n<li>World Malaria Day: 25th April.<\/li>\n<li>WHO officially endorses disease-specific global awareness days for only four diseases viz. <strong>HIV-AIDS, TB, Malaria, and Hepatitis<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>World <strong>first malaria vaccine<\/strong> has been rolled out in Malawi for children under two.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>RTS,S\/AS01<\/strong>, trade name <strong>Mosquirix<\/strong>, is an injectable vaccine targeting P. falciparum, the most prevalent malaria strain in Africa.<\/li>\n<li>It is the first and only vaccine to show partial protection in young children.<\/li>\n<li>In clinical trials, the vaccine was found to prevent approximately 4 in 10 malaria cases, including 3 in 10 cases of life-threatening severe malaria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/100169120669354860_image.png\" style=\"height:258px; margin-left:50px; margin-right:50px; width:301px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/news\/health\/el-salvador-becomes-first-central-american-country-to-be-declared-malaria-free-75681\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>DTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: El Salvador has officially been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) after no reports of new indigenous cases of the disease since 2017. The country is the first in Central America to achieve the WHO\u2019s malaria-free certification status and third in the Americas overall after Argentina in 2019 and Paraguay in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/2491657current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}