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Sri Lanka must sustain its health gains: malaria a case in point-by Prof. Kamini Mendis Source:Island Today, April 25, is World Malaria Day, and as many countries in the tropical world are laboring to control malaria and others racing towards the finish line to eliminate the disease, we in Sri Lanka are enjoying the prestige of being malaria-free. More importantly our people, possibly unknown to many of them, are benefiting from being free of a scourge, which destroyed lives and livelihoods, which took away most of our health budgets for insecticides, which stifled the cognitive development of our children and which greatly hindered Sri Lanka’s economic development for centuries past. Today, we may be beleaguered by many health problems, not least, by the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, but malaria is no more. The year 2012 saw the last case of malaria transmitted by a mosquitoe in Sri Lanka – a colossal achievement ...