Eliminating malaria

The vision of WHO and the global malaria community is a world free of malaria. When a country has eliminated indigenous transmission of malaria for 3 consecutive years, it can request official certification from WHO. Since 2015, 15 countries have been certified malaria-free by WHO. A key goal of the WHO "Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030" is to see malaria eliminated in at least 30 countries by 2030.

To support this goal, WHO launched in 2017 the E-2020 initiative, which brought together 21 countries with the potential to achieve zero indigenous cases of malaria by 2020. Building on the foundation of the E-2020, WHO recently launched a new elimination initiative, the E-2025. 

In June 2022, WHO has issued new recommendations for the final phase of elimination, divided into 3 categories of possible interventions: 

• “mass” strategies applied to the entire population of a delimited geographical area, whether a hamlet, township or district;
  
• “targeted” strategies applied to people at increased risk of infection compared to the general population; and
• “reactive” strategies implemented in response to individual cases.

WHO's work on malaria elimination is supported by the Technical Advisory Group on Malaria Elimination and Certification (TAG-MEC) which advises whether malaria-free certification should be granted to a country.