UAE/Humanitarian initiatives and financial contributions to accelerate malaria eradication efforts around the world

Abu Dhabi, April 25 / WAM / The UAE plays an influential role in supporting and strengthening efforts to combat the spread of malaria at the global level, as its humanitarian initiatives and financial contributions contribute to accelerating steps towards the complete elimination of this disease, in which the number of people infected in 2024 will reach about 282 million, according to estimates by the World Health Organization.

The UAE participates with the world in commemorating International Malaria Day, which falls on April 25 of each year, coinciding with the 29th anniversary of not recording any actual cases of infection within the country since 1997, and the 19th anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the final elimination of the disease in 2007.

The UAE is one of the most prominent supporters of efforts aimed at reducing the incidence of malaria around the world by at least 90% by 2030, according to the outcomes of the Global Technical Strategy on Malaria prepared by the World Health Organization.

The UAE dedicates its expertise and contributions to reducing the spread of malaria and helping many countries deal with it, while international health authorities and organizations praise the UAE’s support for global efforts to combat malaria, including support for the “No Malaria Again” organization and the “Reaching the Last Mile” initiative, as well as its humanitarian initiatives over the past years to strengthen the health and treatment programs of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the “Roll Back Malaria Partnership” program.

In 2020, the UAE witnessed the launch of the “Predicting a Healthy Future” initiative in order to accelerate the pace of progress in combating deadly diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, including malaria. In January 2022, the initiative launched the new Institute for Malaria and Climate Solutions (IMACS), which is a global institute concerned with combating malaria in the face of climate change and weather fluctuations.

In January 2023, the “Reaching the Last Mile” initiative, the “No More Malaria” organization, and the “Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence” announced the expansion of their climate and global health initiative, “Predicting a Healthy Future,” by supporting it with a new three-year grant in the amount of 5 million US dollars.

In turn, the Global Institute for the Elimination of Infectious Diseases (Glide), which works under the supervision of the Zayed Humanitarian Legacy Foundation, announced last August the project “Analysis of national data to understand the potential for malaria to be reintroduced and its decline in the Middle East and North Africa region” with the aim of supporting efforts to eliminate the disease and prevent its re-introduction in the region.

The project covers 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, and aims to establish a database on the factors that caused the spread of malaria in the region during the past 100 years.

In the same context, researchers from the United Arab Emirates University, in cooperation with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Zanzibar Campus, completed a pioneering study that introduced a new data-driven framework for modeling malaria transmission dynamics.

The study represents an important step towards developing more accurate global health models by integrating artificial intelligence with mathematical epidemiology, as it presents a new way to predict malaria outbreaks by incorporating variables that depend on temperature and altitude above sea level into segmented disease models, allowing for a more realistic simulation of how the disease spreads, especially in areas exposed to climate fluctuations.

Locally, the UAE, through the Ministry of Health and Community Protection, is implementing an effective strategy in immunizing society from communicable and contagious diseases through the preventive health system and the epidemiological surveillance program to detect and treat cases importing into the country.

The Ministry, in cooperation with local health authorities, continues to keep the country free of malaria, through strict implementation of the post-announcement plan by enhancing early detection and treatment of imported cases, continuing to qualify and train the workforce in all areas of control, and enhancing activities to combat mosquitoes that transmit the disease.

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