Country-Owned, Country-Driven: Perspectives from the World Health Organization on Malaria Elimination

Malaria has infected and killed humans since long before history began recording evidence of the parasite's pernicious influence. The extraordinary discoveries of the Plasmodium parasite by Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran in 1880, and the role of the Anopheles mosquito in transmission of the parasite to humans by Sir Ronald Ross in 1897, led to an understanding of the parasite life cycle and ultimately to the development of interventions that would interrupt disease transmission. Almost as soon as the insecticidal properties of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) were discovered in 1939, the public health profession began battling to achieve a world free of malaria. That vision persists as the aim of all malariologists and, increasingly, the goal of all nations that remain endemic for malaria. This chapter recounts the history of malaria eradication and elimination efforts throughout the world and focuses on the current status of country-led and country-driven malaria elimination programs, along with the technical strategies recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for achievement of malaria elimination.