El Salvador certified malaria free by World Health Organization
26 Feb 2021
On the 25 February 2021, The World Health Organization (WHO) officially certified El Salvador as malaria-free. The country was identified in 2016 by the WHO as a country with the potential to eliminate malaria by 2020, having gradually reduced its malaria burden over the previous 30 years.
- El Salvador is the first Central American country to achieve malaria elimination.
- Certification is granted when a country proves that it has interrupted indigenous transmission of the disease for at least 3 consecutive years.
The malaria map has now been removed from the fitfortravel El Salvador country page and the malaria advice has been updated.
While malaria no longer presents a risk for travellers to this country, mosquito bite avoidance remains an important health precaution for all travellers as other mosquito-borne infections remain present .