RIYADH, 28 March 2007 — A senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO) described the Kingdom as a model for malaria control in the region, the Ministry of Health announced here yesterday.
The ministry said the number of reported malaria cases in the Kingdom declined to 96 in 2006, prompting Anatolov Vector Condrachan, a World Health Organization malaria control consultant who visited here recently, to declare the Kingdom essentially malaria-free.
Malaria is an infection caused by a blood parasite carried and delivered to people by mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable but kills more than one million people a year — most of them young children living in neighboring Africa.
Khaled Al-Mirghalani, spokesman from the Ministry of Health, told Arab News that the WHO official visited several parts of the Kingdom to see for the country’s anti-malaria efforts. Over the years the number of at-risk villages in Saudi Arabia has declined from about 220 to 50 today, according to the Health Ministry.
The most effective abatement strategy is draining standing water and insecticide spraying.
Ministry of Health has about 50 teams comprising professionals to work in all parts of the Kingdom to bring the disease under control.
“Although there was no remarkable drop in precipitation in the regions at greater risk of malaria, we have been able to control the breeding of mosquitoes,” said Al-Mirghalani. “We are prepared to exchange our experiences with any country that requires our services in malaria control.”
The Kingdom recently took part in a malaria conference in Tunisia where Health Ministry official presented papers on the control of the disease.
In 2003, a Saudi-Yemeni coordination committee on malaria control was formed and Al-Mirghalani said the Kingdom has spent SR 8.5 million for the malaria control in some villages in Yemen since the start of 2006.
