6.2.9  Interruption of control and prevention measures

Malaria is a curable disease if the parasites remain susceptible to available treatments, and it can be prevented by using several methods. However, long-term and sustained implementation of prevention and control measures is necessary to significantly reduce or eliminate the problem from a country or a specific geographic area. As a result of long-term successful interventions, a local population can lose their immunity to malaria in an area where it has been reduced to a low level for some time. Remember that repeated infections are necessary to develop immunity to malaria. Immunity gets lower or is lost if a person moves out of a malaria endemic area, or is protected from infection for several years. Therefore, if control and preventive measures are stopped before the disease is eliminated, malaria can surge back and affect more people, and affect them more severely than before.