Argentina and Algeria stamp out malaria in 'historic achievement'

[EmperorScorpious]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/may/23/argentina-and-algeria-stamp-out-malaria-in-historic-achievement

Algeria and Argentina have been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, in what has been described as a “historic achievement” for both countries.

Algeria and Argentina reported their last locally transmitted cases of malaria in 2013 and 2010 respectively, meaning 38 countries and territories are now free of the disease.

Malaria remains one of the world’s leading killers. In 2017, there were roughly 219m cases of the disease and more than 400,000 malaria-related deaths. Approximately 60% of fatalities are among children aged under five years.

[Omali]

Don't worry, some first world anti-vaxxer traveling to Argentina on holiday will make quick work of that achievement.

[gman003-main]

Probably not. For one, there is no malaria vaccine (not for lack of trying, mind you!). It's a weird disease - a parasitic protozoan, not a bacterium or fungus or virus.

Eradication is primarily about mosquito population control. Eradicate the right species of mosquito, the disease has no carrier. And even if you can't exterminate the mosquitoes, if you can keep them from infecting humans or biting infected humans, you can cut off the transmission chain that way. It's not an easy disease to eradicate, but once eradicated it is very difficult for it to make a resurgence. It would take a systemic failure for it to reappear in force, not just one or two infected idiots.