The purpose of this report is to tell a story. It is about the efforts of a nation over a period of three quarters of a century to rid itself of a public health problem, which at the outset was so overwhelming that it dwarfed any other. It is a story of men and women who took the battle against a deadly disease to the most remote households and pioneered Health for All. The story tracks the reduction in cases and deaths, as more tools became available and were used. The progress has not been linear; at times the resolve weakened, at other times it was possible to accelerate the advance. It was learnt early on that fundamental biogeographic and social differences made it far more challenging to fight malaria in the southern plains and foothills than in the north and the central plateau.

The hope is that a general audience in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IR Iran) will find the story interesting, as it recalls how terrible a scourge malaria was, and it pays tribute to the people who worked to combat it. At the same time this report aims to be analytical, to identify which measures and approaches have been costeffective, and which, in hindsight, have been less successful. Thus, the text should also serve as a reference for those who, for some years to come, will still be dealing with malaria as an actual problem or threat in IR Iran or in other countries. The trends and experiences suggest that with continued investments and a spirit of problem-solving, malaria will be eliminated from the IR Iran before the official target date of 2025. But that does not mean the end of the struggle. People harbouring malaria parasites will arrive in the country every year. By highlighting the immensity of the threat and presenting the experiences of the past and lessons learned, this report should serve to support the health workers who will be working to protect the country against reestablishment of transmission. The methodology used in the preparation of this report is given in Annex 1. Annex 2 presents the main malaria data by region of the IR Iran and year from 2002 to 2015; it could be used by interested students for further analysis of trends. The number of confirmed malaria cases in regions of IR Iran from 1975 to 2009 is summarized in Annex 3. To facilitate the reading of the text by readers without a public health or biological background, an overview of malaria and its control is presented in the next Section.