Eritrea

As the result of the combined efforts by the UN system in Eritrea to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other disease and thereby achieve Millennium Development Goals 6, Eritrea has succeeded in significantly reducing malaria in the country. Empirical data reveals that there has been a decline in morbidity and mortality due to malaria. There has been more than 55% decline in health facility based malaria mortality from 2003 to 2007.

The country has now moved towards malaria pre elimination phase. These achievements attribute to the Government's implementation of the Roll Back Malaria programme since 2000, commitment of the Ministry of Health (MoH) staff and other relevant sectors, involvement of community including the use of Community Health Agents (CHAs) in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and proper management of available resources. The major strategic intervention programme applied to the success include: case management, integrated vector management, epidemic prevention, capacity building, operational research, health promotion and supervision, monitoring and evaluation. Eritrea implemented the Abuja outlined plans within five years time frame and was able to surpass the applicable Abuja targets. The statistical data in the report indicate the correlation between the distributed Insecticidal Treated Bed Nets (ITNs) and the reduction of malaria related morbidity. In the year 2000, around 200,000 ITNs were distributed.

In the same year, the malaria morbidity figure was about 100,000. In 2007, more that 1.2 million ITNs were distributed and the morbidity rate dropped to below 10,000. Similarly, malaria ranked third as a cause of under-five years mortality in 2000. In 2007, malaria fell to ninth as a cause of under-five mortality. Eritrea is one of the leading countries in the African Region that demonstrated that malaria can be controlled with a limited resource environment.