tyle="text-align: justify;">NEW DELHI: While New Delhi stands staggered with Malaria and Dengue, Sri Lanka has become the second country after Maldives to be deemed Malaria free. It’s a historic attainment in its own regard as the small island nation had been fighting malaria since the past many decades.

This journey started 60 years ago when it was the most malaria affected country and since then it started its march towards the zero malaria goal. In 1990, it changed its strategy and adapted a new one, the strategy of intensively target the parasite in addition to targeting the mosquito. Following this, since October 2012, indigenous cases of malaria there have come down to zero.

At the WHO South-East Asia Region’s annual Regional Committee meeting, the regional Director said , “WHO will continue to support the efforts of Sri Lanka’s health authorities as they relate to malaria, as well as the country’s wider public health mission. This outstanding achievement should be a springboard to further public health gains in the country and the South-East Asia Region as a whole”
This committee has 11 member states namely  Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste. 

On the contrary, India is third among 15 countries having the highest cases of malaria and deaths due to the disease.