ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan reported 3.4 million cases of malaria in 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan malaria-free countries.

Pakistan had contacted WHO in 2020 to start the process of declaring Punjab a malaria-free province, but it could not be implemented due to the Covid-19 pandemic and change of management in the malaria control wing. Floods during the last two years have pushed the county far from the dream of achieving that goal.

However, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) claimed that as per the national malaria strategy, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad Capital Territory will be declared malaria free by 2025, while KP, Sindh and Balochistan will reduce their malaria incidence up to 70 per cent by 2030 and Pakistan will be malaria free by 2035.

According to a statement issued by WHO on Wednesday, so far 42 countries or territories have reached the malaria-free milestone. Certification of malaria elimination is an official recognition by WHO of a country’s malaria-free status.

Situation in Pakistan

An NHS ministry official, requesting not to be quoted, said the ministry had that in 2020 contacted WHO to start process for declaring Punjab malaria free. “WHO agreed, but process could not be stated as management in Malaria Control Programme was changed and resources were diverted to curb Covid-19. Moreover, after rains and floods in 2021, areas of south Punjab such as D.G. Khan were severely affected and cases started increasing rapidly. A country is declared malaria free if less than 0.05pc, out of 1,000 testing slides, are found negative for malaria for three years,” he said.

The official said the situation was very good till July 2021 as only 19,000 cases were reported from Sindh and 22,000 from Balochistan. “However, after the floods, the situation was changed and Pakistan ended up with 2.6 million cases in the year 2021. In 2022, the situation further worsened as 3.4m cases were reported from across the country,” he said.

Spokesperson for NHS ministry Sajid Shah told Dawn that Pakistan has in recent years made remarkable progress towards the quest for malaria elimination. “The most recent World Malaria Report noted that contrary to many countries which saw stark increases, in 2020, Pakistan reduced its estimated malaria case incidence by more than 40pc.”

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2023