The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 21 countries, including six in Africa where the disease burden is high, have the potential to be malaria-free by 2020. Almost 400,000 people have died from this mosquito-borne diseases. 

The African nations where malaria could be eliminated are Swaziland, Algeria, Comoros, South Africa, Cape Verde and Botswana. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates in Africa have fallen by 66 percent. 

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China, South Korea, and Malaysia are also in the list, as well as Latin American countries Belize, Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Ecuador. Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, Iran, Sri Lanka, and Nepal can also remove malaria. 

WHO declared last year that malaria has been eradicated in Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

About 3.2 billion people, or nearly half of the global population, are vulnerable to malaria. In 2015, 214 million new cases of the disease were testified in 95 nations, killing nearly 400,000 people.

WHO cautioned that old tools used during recent decades to flight malaria should be replaced with a new approach to completely eliminate the disease.

In his message on World Malaria Day on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the disease is a challenging opponent, and there is no certainty that progress will continue.

"If we lower our guard, experience shows that the disease may come back. Mosquitoes develop resistance to insecticides and malaria parasites can become resistant to medicines," he said. 

Tagschina, Malaria, WHO, Africa