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Current trends: autochthonous malaria

Over the past 16 years, intensive anti-malaria interventions have substantially reduced the number of reported autochthonous malaria cases in the WHO European Region: from 90 712 cases in 1995 to 102 in 2011, including a small-scale outbreak of 40 P.vivax cases reported in Laconia of Greece in 2011.

Since 2008, all malaria-affected countries of the Region have finally moved towards elimination and revised their national strategies on malaria to reflect new realities. When a country has zero locally acquired malaria cases for at least three consecutive years, it can request WHO to certify it as malaria free. Eliminating malaria from the Region by 2015 is a realistic and attainable goal. Turkmenistan attained malaria-free status in 2010, Armenia – in 2011, Kazakhstan – in 2012. Georgia recently initiated preparation for certification process and official request for certification is to be asked in the end of 2012.

The transmission of autochthonous Plasmodium falciparum malaria reported in Tajikistan was interrupted in 2009, and the Region as a whole is free from this type of malaria.

In addition, external partners, particularly Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and the Russian Federation provide financial support to malaria elimination efforts in EURO countries.

Situation with imported malaria

As a result of human migration and the current tidal wave of tourist travel to malaria-endemic countries, malaria continues to be imported into areas that have been classified as malaria free. Travel-associated and imported malaria is becoming a growing issue in many developed countries in the WHO European Region where the disease had been successfully eliminated. The situation poses a hazard to the people who acquire malaria because the disease may remain undiagnosed or be incorrectly diagnosed, resulting in high case-fatality rates.