5 March 2018 – At the request of the Ministry of Health and Population, the WHO country office in Egypt, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, hosted a review meeting on malaria elimination certification on Monday, 19 February 2018.
The meeting aimed to review current progress in national activities to eliminate malaria and agree on a national roadmap to achieve certification of malaria elimination.
The Regional Advisor for the malaria control and elimination programme presented the "Regional malaria action plan 2016–2020: Towards a malaria-free Region".
He reviewed the 3 key steps for WHO certification of malaria elimination:
- self-evaluation to determine whether a country meets the WHO criteria;
- WHO assessment mission to support a country in creating a national action plan with timelines
- submission of national elimination dossier.
The meeting concluded with agreement to arrange follow up meetings on a regular basis to follow up on the steps identified in order to achieve the WHO criteria to eliminate malaria in Egypt and ensure that no local malaria transmission takes place in the country.
Egypt has had no local transmission of malaria for 3 years and WHO continues to advocate for a strong surveillance system to prevent the re-establishment of local transmission in the country.
Related link
Regional malaria action plan 2016–202: Towards a malaria-free Region