Belize Declared Malaria-free

The World Health Organization has declared Belize malaria-free. This means that there are no recorded cases of malaria currently in the country. This is a significant achievement, one that personnel from the Ministry of Health and Wellness intend to keep that way. Today, the Director of Hospital Services and Allied Health, Doctor Jorge Polanco told News Five that while our current status is very good, we need to be vigilant because Belize is bordered by other countries and infected people can bring across the disease. Malaria is spread when the anopheles mosquito feeds on the blood of an infected person and transmits the disease when it bites other people.

Jorge Polanco

On the Phone: Dr. Jorge Polanco, Director of Hospital Services and Allied Health

“It is very significant. It’s a milestone in the history of public health because what this means is that the country has been certified by the World Health Organization as being malaria-free, which means that the transmission of malaria is no longer happening as a consequence of we having here infected mosquitoes or infected persons with malaria. What it means is that tourists and Belizeans could travel the country with a significant degree of confidence that they would not be infected with malaria. It means that the transmission should there be a case, it would not be a local transmission. I think should there be a case because we have neighbors. The possibility for somebody with malaria coming in is there and somebody could get bitten and the disease could spread, but that would be considered an imported case. So what that means is that we in Belize, we have managed to control our breeding sites in all six districts. We have managed to have a significant surveillance system that we were able to detect in a very timely manner and treat malaria cases in the recent years.”