One of the world’s major killers, on the rise in many regions, is no longer a threat in Paraguay.
The World Health Organization, which certified Paraguay malaria-free, primarily credits the country’s conquest of the mosquito-borne disease to its system of free public health care, and the involvement of communities.
This is the first time a mainland Latin American country in its entirety has been free of malaria, and the first overall elimination in the region since 1973, when Cuba became the first of several Caribbean nations to wipe out the disease.
Sources: World Health Organization (NGO)