At the invitation of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health is participating in the 4th Global Forum for Malaria Eliminating Countries taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. The WHO took advantage of this malaria conference to present a ‘special recognition award’ to a number of countries, including Suriname.
These are countries that have made significant progress towards eliminating malaria in the year 2021. Suriname has achieved a more than 50 percent decrease in the number of malaria cases in 2021 compared to the previous year. Hélène Hiwat, coordinator of the Malaria program received the award on behalf of the Ministry of Health.
The Malaria Program can now report that the year 2022 has ended even better than 2021, namely with zero national malaria cases. However, more than 60 malaria positives were found among travelers who came from malaria areas in the region.
The Ministry of Health is committed to preventing the reintroduction of malaria in Suriname as a result of this imported malaria. Together with the PAHO/WHO, the multi-year trajectory towards the malaria-free certification of Suriname will now be started. An important condition for this is that Suriname has been malaria-free for at least three years and that the national capacity for malaria surveillance and malaria prevention and control interventions is maintained at a high level.
