WHO has declared Algeria and Argentina as malaria-free countries
25, May 2019
Prelims level :
Mains level :
CONTEXT:
- World Health Organization officially declared Algeria and Argentina as malaria-free countries after recording no new cases for more than three years.
- Now, the numbers of malaria free countries increased to 38 from 36.
BACKGROUND:
- Argentina reported the last indigenous case in 2010 while in Algeria it was reported in 2013.
- Algeria is the second African nation to have eliminated the disease after Mauritius which achieved the goal in 1973.
- Malaria parasite was discovered by French physician Dr. Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran in 1880.
