China declared officially malaria-free by WHO
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared China malaria-free, after a 70-year effort to wipe it out.
- China used to report 30 million cases a year during the 1940s. Since then, eradication efforts have driven down case numbers.
- In 2010, Chinese government committed to eliminating locally transmitted malaria within a decade. On 30 June, the WHO certified that China is malaria-free.
How did China eliminate malaria?
- Chinese government made malaria elimination a national priority under the 2010 National Malaria Elimination Action Plan.
- It pioneered a method known as “1-3-7,” which shortened the amount of time it takes for local health authorities to report malaria cases and begin to test others for exposure to the Plasmodium parasite.
- A Chinese scientist, Tu Youyou, was awarded a Nobel prize for her discovery in the 1970s of the anti-malaria drug artemisinin.
What is the 1-3-7 surveillance model approach of eliminating malaria?
The 1-3-7 approach targets:
a. reporting of confirmed cases within one day, b. investigation of specific cases within three days, and c. targeted control measures to prevent further transmission within seven days.
What other countries are malaria-free?
- The WHO has certified 100 countries or territories as malaria-free, but only 40 of those eliminated the disease through specific public health measures; the rest are places “where malaria never existed or disappeared without specific measures.”
What is the criteria of declaring a country malaria-free?
A country is eligible to apply for an official certification of malaria elimination from the WHO if:
a. It “has demonstrated—with rigorous, credible evidence—that the chain of indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes has been interrupted nationwide for at least the past three consecutive years”. b. It has demonstrated “the capacity to prevent the re-establishment of transmission”.