China on the verge of eliminating malaria

CHINA is on the verge of eliminating malaria, a senior Chinese health official told a gathering on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Switzerland at which Beijing was praised for its efforts in helping other countries fight the lethal disease.

Cui Li, vice director of China’s National Health Commission, addressed an event titled “Countryled and country-owned efforts on malaria elimination to achieving universal health coverage” at Geneva’s Palais des Nations during the annual WHA on Tuesday.

“In 2017, for the first time, zero indigenous cases were reported in China, thus the efforts have had a significant impact on the country’s malaria elimination roadmap,” Cui said at the event that was co-sponsored by China.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China for what it was doing to fund the fight against malaria in the world.

Tedros said that since the year 2000, good progress had been made, but “we are at the crossroads,” while noting that the fight against malaria needs to be sustained.

“We have more than 200 million cases of malaria a year and more than 90 percent of them are in Africa, so the focus on Africa is important,” said Tedros, an Ethiopian who specialized in malaria before taking the helm of the WHO last year.

Chinese officials have explained that in the case of China, to fulfill and assess the elimination process and achieve the goal of certification by the World Health Organization, China had adopted the county, prefecture and sub-national verification process since 2012.

Cui said the Ministry of Health in China, jointly with 12 ministries, issued its National Malaria Elimination Action Plan 2010-2020 in June 2010, to kick off the country’s campaign to eradicate the disease. She said the overall goals of the malaria elimination campaign in China were set to achieve complete elimination in the country by 2020.

Also during WHA, health officials from China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao, Thailand and Vietnam along with WHO representatives signed the Ministerial Call for Action to Eliminate Malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion before 2030.