According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) malaria kills nearly 800,000 people every year worldwide. In recent years, there has been a shift from just controlling malaria to actually working towards eradicating the disease. In countries where the disease is prevalent, governments and healthcare agencies are starting programmes to achieve elimination of the disease on a region by region basis.

Malaria Journal is publishing an ongoing thematic series ‘Towards Malaria Elimination’ highlighting successful measures to eliminate the disease and providing a forum for discussion of malaria elimination. The latest article in the series outlines the government of Swaziland’s policy to eliminate malaria in the country – Swaziland is a frontrunner in the race to become the first sub-Saharan African country to eliminate the disease. Since implementing malaria elimination strategies in 2009, the incidence of malaria in Swaziland has fallen by 76%. However, the country needs to secure resources to keep on working on strategies to eliminate malaria and future risk of the disease being imported from neighbouring countries.

Articles in the series also look at elimination programmes in Sri Lanka, São Tomé & Princípe and Vanuatu, islands in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans respectively. 

Malaria Journal encourages the submission of manuscripts highlighting malaria elimination strategies. Please contact Editor-in-Chief Marcel Hommel for pre-submission enquiries. 

 Swaziland landscape – image credit Sara Atkins