WHO declares SL free of malaria

COLOMBO: The World Health Organisation has certified Sri Lanka free of malaria, the second country in the region to earn the distinction after the Maldives, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

The UN agency had sent teams to Sri Lanka in the past three years to evaluate its efforts to ensure there was not a single indigenous malaria case since 2012, the ministry said in a statement.

"Minister Rajitha Senaratne was presented today with a certificate confirming Sri Lanka’s malaria-free status by the WHO," the statement said adding that the island had set up a unit to eradicate the mosquito-borne disease.

The announcement came as Colombo hosted a meeting of the WHO regional committee for South East Asia.

Sri Lanka’s state-run Anti-Malaria Campaign said 180 cases of malaria were detected in the country in the past three years, but all the victims had contracted the disease abroad.

"Sri Lanka has now completed three consecutive years without indigenous malaria, an achievement seen never before," the campaign said.  There had been no deaths due to indigenous malaria since 2007.