Mehmet Aziz

Mehmet Aziz, OBE, (September 24, 1893, Larnaca – June 17, 1991) was a Turkish Cypriot medical doctor and ordinance professor.

[1] According to the London newspaper The Times, the three-year project to eradicate malaria in Cyprus was "largely carried out by the Cypriots themselves under the skilful organization of Mr Mehmed Aziz, the island's chief health inspector, who studied with Sir Ronald Ross.

The campaign began on the Karpas Peninsula and moved westward and while it lasted all traffic travelling from 'unclean' to 'clean' areas of the island had to be sprayed with insecticide.

[4] The total elimantion of malaria from the island took just over three years, and by February 1950, Cyprus had become the world's first malaria-free country.

[5] According to the American Medical Association, Aziz was "widely honored for his achievement in Cyprus, called 'the great liberator' and likened to St. Patrick for ridding his native land of a pest far more insidious than snakes.