DOH: Except Palawan, all provinces are malaria-free
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health on Tuesday said that all provinces in the Philippines — except Palawan — have attained malaria-free status after years of effort to combat the mosquito-borne disease.
“Eighty out of 81 provinces in the country are all malaria-free already,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing. The Philippines aims to be declared malaria-free by 2030.
Vergeire said DOH is working with the Palawan government to eliminate malaria in the province.
The health official also reported that the provinces of Oriental Mindoro, Rizal, Aurora and Cotabato were declared malaria-free in 2022.
Department Circular 2021-0249 states that a province must have no confirmed indigenous malaria cases in the last five years, and have a functional elimination hub, system for disease surveillance and diagnosis and treatment of malaria to be declared malaria-free.
According to the DOH, the country’s malaria incidence declined by 87% to only 6,120 cases in 2020 from 48,569 cases in 2003.
Deaths due to malaria also decreased by 98% to just three deaths in 2020 from 162 deaths in 2003.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organization, there were around 247 million cases of malaria worldwide.
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