Last October the Ministry of Health and Wellness celebrated being recognized as a Malaria free country by the WHO after 70 years of continued efforts to eliminate the disease in country. It's a major landmark accomplishment but the story doesn't end there. Diaz Musa told us that vigilance must be maintained to ensure that malaria stays eliminated:

Melissa Diaz Musa, Director, Public Health and Wellness
"This has been a work for over five years because in order to be identified as elimination of Malaria you would have to have had at least three consecutive years with no malaria in country so the assessment it's not just about eliminating these diseases but it's also to sustain these practices so continuous testing training of our healthcare workers including our vector control officers or environmental health officers our community health workers, primary care coordinators, the entire cadre must be trained and must be able to think about malaria in order to test for it."