East Timor is the second poorest nation in Asia, and lost 20 percent of its population due to mass killings committed by Indonesian troops between 1975 and 1999. It used to be the most malaria-infested country in Asia.
But now, it has eradicated malaria:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Timor-Leste [East Timor] as malaria-free, a remarkable achievement for a country that prioritized the disease and embarked on a concerted, nation-wide response shortly after gaining independence in 2002.
“WHO congratulates the people and government of Timor-Leste [East Timor] on this significant milestone,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Timor-Leste’s success proves that malaria can be stopped in its tracks when strong political will, smart interventions, sustained domestic and external investment and dedicated health workers unite.”
With today’s announcement, a total of 47 countries and 1 territory have been certified as malaria-free by WHO. Timor-Leste is the third country to be certified in the WHO South-East Asia region, joining Maldives and Sri Lanka which were certified in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Certification of malaria elimination is granted by WHO when a country has proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that the chain of indigenous transmission has been interrupted nationwide for at least the previous three consecutive years.
“We did it. Malaria has been one of our most relentless enemies – silent, persistent, and deadly. We lost too many lives to a disease that should be preventable. But our health workers never gave up, our communities held strong, and our partners, like WHO, walked beside us. From 223 000 cases to zero – this elimination honours every life lost and every life now saved. We must safeguard this victory with continued vigilance and community action to prevent malaria’s re-entry,” said Dr Élia António de Araújo dos Reis Amaral, SH, Minister of Health, Government of Timor-Leste.
Since gaining independence in 2002, Timor-Leste has made remarkable strides in the fight against malaria – reducing cases from a peak of more than 223 000 clinically diagnosed cases in 2006 to zero indigenous cases from 2021 onwards.
Timor-Leste’s success in eliminating malaria was driven by the Ministry of Health’s swift action in 2003 to establish the National Malaria Programme, a dedicated programme for planning, implementing, and monitoring malaria control efforts nationwide. With only two full-time officers initially, the programme was able to lay the foundation for progress early on through strong technical leadership, managerial capacity and attention to detail.
Within a few years, the country introduced rapid diagnostic tests and artemisinin-based combination therapy as part of the National Malaria Treatment Guidelines and began distributing free long-lasting insecticide treated nets to communities most at risk.
Vaccination has cut child deaths by two thirds in Burundi, which is the second poorest country on Earth in terms of annual income. People in Burundi have a per capita income of about $1,000, compared to $89,000 in the United States. (That $1,000 takes into account cheaper living costs in Burundi. If you don’t adjust for living costs, people in Burundi have an even lower per capita income of about $500).
In other good news, the African nation of Guinea recently eradicated sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease carried by the tsetse fly that causes irreversible brain damage, aggressiveness, psychosis, and then death, if left untreated.
Niger recently became the first nation in Africa to eliminate river blindness, a disease spread by flies that breed near rivers. Those flies carry long thin parasitic worms that burrow in a victim’s skin.
