Over the past two decades, the Americas have made remarkable progress against malaria. Several countries have successfully eliminated the disease, and in June 2025, Suriname became the first country in the Amazon region to receive WHO malaria-free certification.
Yet, malaria elimination is advancing unevenly across the region.
Today, transmission is increasingly concentrated in a limited number of hotspots, particularly within the Amazon Basin, which accounts for most malaria cases reported in the Americas. In countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela, malaria persists in specific regions where environmental conditions, limited access to healthcare, population mobility, and economic activities such as mining continue to sustain transmission.
At the same time, increasing human mobility is reshaping malaria dynamics. People travel across borders for work, trade, healthcare, and family reasons, creating opportunities for malaria parasites to move between areas with very different transmission levels. As countries approach elimination, imported infections become increasingly important, raising the risk of outbreaks and reintroduction in areas where malaria has been reduced or eliminated.
This changing landscape highlights the importance of regional collaboration. Understanding where infections originate, how they move across borders, and whether they represent local transmission or importation is becoming essential for malaria elimination efforts.
Molecular surveillance offers new opportunities to address these questions. By combining genomic, epidemiological, and geographic data, these approaches can help identify transmission links, distinguish imported infections from local transmission, and support more targeted public health responses.
As the Americas move closer to elimination, sustaining progress will depend not only on national efforts but also on stronger regional networks, data sharing, and collaboration across borders. Malaria does not recognize national boundaries, and neither should the strategies designed to eliminate it.
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Escalante AA, et al. MMS Américas: A regional network for malaria molecular surveillance. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2025.
Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41535856/
World Health Organization (WHO). World Malaria Report 2025. Geneva: WHO; 2025.
Available at: https://www.who.int/teams/global-malaria-programme/reports/world-malaria-report-2025
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Suriname certified malaria-free by WHO. News release, June 30, 2025.
Available at: https://www.paho.org/en/news/30-6-2025-suriname-certified-malaria-free-who
