Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said on Wednesday that the Philippines is nearing elimination of malaria, with only a few cases still being reported in Palawan.
“We are talking to the Global Fund and they said that we are nearing elimination of malaria,” Herbosa told the reporters following a press briefing in Malacañang.
“Malaria is now only found in Palawan, specifically in the high mountainous areas,” he added.
The Global Fund, an international organization that finances health programs in developing countries, has promised that the Philippines can announce the elimination of malaria in two to three years.
Herbosa said that most of the Philippines is already malaria-free, with less than a thousand cases reported yearly. The country cannot yet be declared malaria-free, however, because there are still cases in Palawan.
Department of Health (DOH) said earlier this year that all provinces in the Philippines, except Palawan, are already malaria-free. DOH noted that 66 provinces are already free from the life-threatening disease while 15 have zero indigenous cases.
“We can’t declare it yet because of the program,” Herbosa said. “It’s about the detection and treatment of malaria.”
He said the Philippines needs to have zero cases for several years before it can be declared malaria-free.
“We need to have two to three years of zero detection,” Herbosa said.
Malaria is a potentially fatal disease that is treatable and avoidable. It is brought on by parasites that are spread to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes that have been infected.
World Health Organization said around 619 000 people died from malaria worldwide in 2021.
The number of malaria cases worldwide increased between 2020 and 2021, albeit more slowly than it did from 2019 to 2020.
WHO said the number of malaria cases worldwide reached 247 million in 2021 compared to 245 million cases in 2020 and 232 million in 2019.