What underscored successful malaria elimination in Palestine 100 years ago? Effective Education

Abstract

Transmission of malaria by anopheline mosquitoes had been established by 1897, and in 1922, the first start of a successful national malaria elimination campaign began. Until then, only malaria control had been considered anywhere as a feasible project, such malaria control having been conducted primarily through larval source management. From 1922 onwards, in Palestine, by ensuring the breeding sites remained destroyed continuously over years and years, malaria elimination was eventually achieved. However, in order to achieve such continuous destruction, transmission of the disease had to be imaginatively and sensitively explained to all the inhabitants who thereupon willingly accepted the task of ensuring the breeding sites remained destroyed. Without that education, the inhabitants would not have provided the continuous work required, and Palestine would have remained in its severe malarious state.

Figure 1:

Haj Amin el Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

Figure 2

During World War 2. Left: The Mufti with Hitler in Berlin; Right: Assisting German soldier.