A report from the United Nations health agency said that malaria has almost been eliminated from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to a government campaign to control the disease. The 2009 World Malaria Report classifies the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as having entered the elimination phase of malaria control meaning that while there are still cases, these are limited to a particular region and new cases are detected and treated quickly. Globally, the report from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that the number of cases dropped by half in more than a third of countries battling the disease. "While much remains to be done, the data presented clearly suggests that the tremendous increase in funding for malaria control is resulting in the rapid scale-up of today"s control tools," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. Of the 108 countries affected by malaria, at least one-third-nine African and 29 others showed reductions in malaria cases of more than 50 per cent in 2008. Still, malaria infected more than 240 million people last year and killed an estimated 863,000 people, mostly in Africa. --SPA
