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Rabat - No cases of indigenous malaria have been detected in Morocco since 2005, Health Ministry said Friday in a statement on the occasion of the celebration Saturday of the World Malaria Day under the theme "Counting Malaria Out."

"Residual cases were detected in 2003 and 2004, and starting from the year 2005, no indigenous case has been detected at the national level," said the same source.

It added that the north African country has applied for WHO Certification of Malaria Eradication.

Malaria is a deadly mosquito-borne disease which takes one million lives a year. It is caused by a parasite in the mosquito called plasmodium, and is transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes.

In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver and infect red blood cells. Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear 10 to 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly be life-threatening by disputing the blood supply to various organs.

Nine out of 10 cases of malaria worldwide occur in Africa south of the Sahara and 90 percent of Africa's population is at risk of malaria, most of them children below five years old and pregnant women.

MAP