WHO and Angolan health officials on a mission to stamp out Guinea worm disease ©WHO/Omotola AkindipeContributions to WHO are being used to free communities from a range of dangerous infectious diseases.
Some, like malaria, kill mainly children. Others, like the disfiguring Guinea worm and noma infections, are linked to poor access to clean water and other aspects of poverty.This week, see stories about how contributions have been translated into action in Cabo Verde, where years of persistent effort have eliminated malaria; in Panama, where community collaborators are filling a health-services gap in hard-to-reach villages; and in Paraguay, where teams are going from one neighborhood to the next, removing the breeding grounds of the mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever.Read also about work under way in Angola to eradicate Guinea worm disease, Cameroon’s significant progress in reducing HIV, success against hepatitis B in Maldives and Sri Lanka, and fighting back against cholera outbreaks in Zambia and Zimbabwe.Cabo Verde is a now malaria-free countryWHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meets with health workers during a visit to Santa Cruz Health Centre, Santiago, Cabo Verde, on 11 January 2024. ©WHO/JacsSpoorWHO has certified Cabo Verde as malaria free, marking a significant achievement in global health.
Cabo Verde joins the ranks of 43 countries and one territory in receiving the certification.Cabo Verde is the third country to be certified in the WHO African region, joining Mauritius, which was certified in 1973, and Algeria, in 2019.
In 2021, 95% of the world’s malaria cases and 96% of malaria-related deaths occurred on the African continent.“I salute the government and people of Cabo Verde for their