Okaz / Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The World Health Organization (WHO) has described Saudi Arabia's efforts in the fight against malaria as a "success story" and said the Kingdom's efforts in this area should be highly commended. The WHO made the comments on Monday on the occasion of the World Malaria Day (WMD), which this year is being held under the theme: "End Malaria for Good". The Kingdom has joined other countries of the world in observing this day. Undersecretary of the Health Ministry, Dr. Abdulaziz Bin Saeed said the situation regarding the spread of malaria in the Kingdom has greatly improved during the past 17 years from 1997-2015. "The rate of infections has come down from 40,000 cases every year to only 83 last year," he said. The undersecretary noted that the Kingdom has a long history in combating malaria dating back to 1948. "About 67 years ago Aramco oil company began its campaign to fight malaria in the Eastern Province," he said. Saeed said in 2015, more than 214 million people worldwide were infected by malaria of whom more than 438,000 have died. He regretted that the rate of infection is particularly high in the Muslim world reaching more than 131 million people annually constituting 66 percent of the entire world's rates. "The deaths from malaria in the Muslim world represent about 68 percent of the world's deaths," he added. The undersecretary also said there are 1,200 daily death cases of malaria in the world the majority of whom are in the Muslim world. "Almost half of the world population are susceptible to contact malaria," he warned.
