On this World Malaria Day, it’s important to reflect on the major ground we’ve gained. For example, in the last decade, Cambodia has achieved impressive results in its fight against the disease — so much so that it is now one of the 17 countries in South East Asia aiming to eliminate malaria by 2025. But the largest gains can often be madeby closing the smallest gaps.
Cambodia’s National Strategy for Malaria Elimination stresses the need for early diagnosis to detect all malaria cases, lest the problem once again grow to previous proportions. The strategy relies on public and private sector providers offering access to reliable diagnostics and high quality malaria treatment, while simultaneously preventing the use of substandard drugs and monotherapies. These steps are vital to ensuring that artemisinin-resistant parasites, which threaten control and elimination gains with the prospect of untreatable malaria, are not allowed to spread.
