Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have received certification from the World Health Organization (WHO) for eliminating malaria in their countries.  

A nation's status as being malaria-free is formally acknowledged by WHO through certification of malaria elimination. 

A nation is given the certification if it can demonstrate, by rigorous, reliable evidence, that the cycle of indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes has been broken countrywide for at least the previous three years. A nation must also show that it has the ability to stop transmission from starting up again.  

In Azerbaijan and Tajikistan respectively, the last cases of locally transmitted Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) malaria were discovered in 2012 and 2014. 

With today's announcement, the WHO has certified a total of 41 nations and 1 territory as being malaria-free, including 21 nations in the European Region.  Both governments have provided free primary healthcare for everyone for more than 60 years. 

They have actively backed targeted malaria interventions, such as spraying insecticides on interior walls of homes to prevent the disease, encouraging early diagnosis and treatment of all cases, and maintaining the abilities of all health professionals working to eradicate the disease. 

National electronic surveillance systems for malaria are used in Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, providing practically real-time case detection and enabling quick investigations to establish if an infection is indigenous or imported. Biological approaches to larvae control, such as mosquito-eating fish, and water management practices were employed to limit the malaria vectors.