Honourable Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva,
Honourable Minister of Health Dr Filomena Goncalves,
Senhores Ministros, Senhores Embaixadores,
Resident Coordinator and our Country Representative,
Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
Bom dia!
Queridos amigos, estou feliz por estar em Cabo Verde.
This is my first time here, but I feel like I have been here before. And it's because maybe I will add one more thing because of morabeza.
So, it's such a great honour to be here to celebrate this historic milestone with all of you.
I think the world is not smiling much, but I think today we have a reason to smile. At least there is some good news, and we hope we will have more good news in 2024 for our troubled world.
As you know, malaria is one of the oldest known diseases. It has afflicted humanity for millennia. And it has affected the people of Cabo Verde, since these islands were settled in the 15th century.
But from now on, we will speak about malaria in Cabo Verde in the past tense. It gives me great pleasure to announce that on the advice of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on malaria elimination and certification, and the WHO malaria policy advisory group, I have certified Cabo Verde as malaria-free. Congratulations.
I congratulate the government and people of Cabo Verde, all partners and all health workers on this historic achievement, which comes as you celebrate National Democracy Day tomorrow.
Indeed, you have much to celebrate. Cabo Verde is in many ways a model democracy, with good governance, media freedoms, and civil liberties.
Yesterday I had dinner with the Prime Minister. All past Ministers and the current Minister of Health were there.
As you know, these former ministers, the current minister, and of course, the Prime Minister, come from different parties.
Of course, they may have differences, but because this is a democratic country, they can still work together, they can come together to celebrate and to work for their country.
So that's why I say Cabo Verde is a model - sorry to say it, but which we are lacking in many of our African countries.
And if there is one thing, yesterday I had one question that was coming again and again, "What's your first impression of Cabo Verde?" I said it's democracy. That's what we want in our in our continent. That's what we want. We need democracy. We need good governance; we need media freedom. Please sustain this. This is good for stability, this is good for prosperity, and our Africa should learn from Cabo Verde.
Having democracy and freedom is possible, and eliminating malaria is also possible. Anything is possible in our continent. If there is a will, there is a way.
I have focused on this because it's the basis for the prosperity and development of our continent. You should celebrate that as well. I'm glad to join you tomorrow when you celebrate your National Day for Democracy.
Coming back to malaria, I believe that achieving malaria free status will go down in the history of Cabo Verde as one of its most significant achievements, alongside achieving independence and democracy.
Your strong political commitment, vigilance, coordinated intersectoral collaboration, partnership and investment beyond the health sector have made this achievement possible.
With this achievement, Cabo Verde becomes the 43rd country globally to be awarded malaria-free status, and the third in the WHO African Region, after Algeria and Mauritius.
Actually, the first from Sub-Saharan Africa in the last 50 years. So, this is a historic achievement. I hope this will inspire countries across our continent and across the world.
You have not arrived at this point by accident.
For many years, Cabo Verde has been working to put in place the systems and capacities to show that there is no more malaria in the country, and to ensure that it can never come back.
This hard work, though led by the Ministry of Health, has been shared by many ministries - all of whom have a strong interest in never seeing malaria in this country again.
The WHO, the Global Fund and other partners have been proud to support this process at every step.
I would like to acknowledge and thank all those who made this moment possible, and who will continue to work to protect Cabo Verde from malaria in the coming years.
Yesterday, during my visit to the health centre in Santa Cruz, I heard about a case of malaria that was found only two weeks ago in someone travelling from another country.
The speed and efficiency with which the case was identified, diagnosed, and successfully treated, and the population protected, was remarkable.
This is exactly what needs to happen for Cabo Verde to remain malaria free.
Those two words - malaria free - are a sweet sound to those of us in public health, and especially to those of us who have specialised in malaria.
Malaria remains one of the world's major public health challenges, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives each year and hampering social development.
In 2022, there were an estimated 608 000 deaths from malaria, and 249 million cases, as Dr Daniel indicated earlier.
The vast majority of those cases and deaths are here in Africa, and about 4 in 5 malaria-related deaths are among children under the age of five.
Millions of people continue to miss out on the services they need to prevent, detect and treat the disease.
Humanitarian crises, resource constraints and biological challenges such as drug and insecticide resistance also continue to hamper progress.
Despite these many challenges, there are also important achievements to celebrate.
A new generation of bed nets, recommended last year by WHO, have been shown to have greater impact against pyrethroid-resistant mosquitoes compared to standard pyrethroid-only nets.
The first malaria vaccine recommended by WHO - RTS,S - has led to a substantial reduction in both severe malaria and early childhood deaths in the areas where it has been rolled out.
In October last year, WHO recommended a second safe and effective malaria vaccine, called R21 matrix.
As a young malaria researcher - I started my work in public health with malaria - I used to dream of the day we would have a vaccine. Now we have two. Of course, you have already eliminated malaria even without having those tools.
The availability of two vaccines is expected to make broad scale-up across Africa possible.
Tens of thousands of young lives could be saved every year with the rollout of these vaccines, complementing existing interventions such as seasonal malaria chemoprevention and new-generation nets.
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These powerful new tools give us real hope of achieving our dream of a malaria-free world.
Today, we are taking one step toward realising that dream, by celebrating a malaria-free Cabo Verde.
Let's remember that this moment is really the end of a beginning.
Cabo Verde will always be at risk for malaria to come back. Because there is malaria everywhere. The work that brought us to this point must continue.
Keeping Cabo Verde malaria free will require ongoing training, and continued investment in systems that protect the country against communicable diseases. And continued vigilance.
It will require continued investment in Cabo Verde's strong primary health system, without which elimination of malaria would not have been possible.
Ensuring the continuity of malaria surveillance, quality diagnosis, multisectoral collaboration and allocation of the required resources will be vital to prevent re-establishment of malaria transmission.
I am confident that the Government of Cabo Verde will make every effort to maintain its malaria-free status.
And from the time I met His Excellency, Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva, that's what I have seen, his strong commitment and of course of the Minister, my sister.
This achievement sends a clear message to the world that with political will, strong partnership and the full commitment of every partner, the elimination of malaria is possible anywhere.
And as I said earlier, democracy is also possible, good governance is also possible. So thank you, thank you so much Cabo Verde. Obrigado for being an excellent example to our continent.
Again, estou feliz por estar em Cabo Verde. Congratulations. Thank you.
