Eliminating malaria (case study 2): Moving towards sustainable elimination in Cape Verde

Eliminating malaria (case study 2): Moving towards sustainable elimination in Cape Verde

The WHO Global Malaria Programme and the Global Health Group at the University of California in San Francisco, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, launched a new series of case-studies on malaria elimination: Eliminating malaria. In this series, national malaria control programmes and researchers generate new evidence about what works – and what does not – for reaching and sustaining zero malaria transmission.

The objective of this work is to build an evidence base to support intensification of malaria elimination as an important step in achieving international malaria targets. Ten case-studies are being prepared that, together, will provide insights into and lessons to be learnt from a wide range of elimination approaches and geographical settings.

This case-study examines the history of malaria in Cape Verde up to 2010, presents details of the successive interventions that have been carried out over the past 60 years to eliminate transmission and contain subsequent outbreaks, and highlights the programmatic steps that have been taken since the country decided in 2007 to eliminate local malaria transmission once and for all. Cape Verde is currently in the pre-elimination stage. Lessons for countries that are embarking upon elimination are distilled.