On Mar. 29, 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan for achieving elimination of malaria in their territories. The certification follows a sustained, century-long effort to stamp out the disease by the 2 countries.

Certification of malaria elimination is the official recognition by WHO of a country’s malaria-free status. The certification is granted when a country has shown – with rigorous, credible evidence – that the chain of indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes has been interrupted nationwide for at least the past three consecutive years.  A country must also demonstrate the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.

Azerbaijan detected its last case of locally transmitted Plasmodium vivax (P.vivax) malaria in 2012 and Tajikistan in 2014. With today’s announcement, a total of 41 countries and 1 territory have been certified as malaria-free by WHO, including 21 countries in the European Region.