The UAE will join the world on Wednesday to celebrate World Malaria Day, under the theme, "Ready to Beat Malaria." The UAE officially announced that it became free from malaria in 2007, and it since then began its leading role in helping the international efforts to combat the disease in many countries.

The United Nations, UN, praised the UAE for these efforts and highlighted a recent report on the number of the cases malaria around the world, which reached around 216 million people in 2016 while the number of deaths from the disease reached around 445,000, most of them in countries in Central Africa.

The UAE, which has not recorded any cases of malaria since 1997, is a key supporter of the international efforts to reduce the number of cases of the disease by 90 percent by 2030. Last September, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, donated US$5 million to support the three-year "Roll Back Malaria Partnership Programme," as part of his support for international humanitarian causes, as well as the programme’s efforts to reduce the risk of malaria and save many lives around over the world.

The UAE provided its expertise to reduce the spread of the disease and assist many countries, most notably Yemen, where Dr. Nasser Baoum, Minister of Health of the Legitimate Yemeni Government, praised the UAE’s efforts to assist his country’s legitimate government and medical institutions in combatting malaria, reducing its spread and treating patients. Baoum also highlighted the support of the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, in 2017 for the National Malaria Control Programme in Yemen, through delivering medication to the relevant authorities. It also distributed 100,000 insecticide-filled bed nets, to reduce the spread of the disease among the people and assist them in their prevention efforts, he added.

Dr. Farida Al Hosani, Manager of the Communicable Disease Department at the Department of Health-Abu Dhabi, said that the UAE’s international efforts to combat malaria highlights its care for the health of people while pointing out that the UAE, after announcing, through the World Health Organisation in 2017, that it was completely free from the disease, succeeded in protecting its community through an electronic system to report infectious diseases, which also monitors incoming cases from other countries. Al Hosani also noted that the UAE completely succeeded in combatting malaria after its spread around the country in the 1960s while highlighting its current efforts to completely eliminate the disease.

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2018.