Malaria elimination in China: dispatch from Yunnan Province
On 30 June 2021, WHO announced that China has been officially certified malaria-free. Malaria was once one of the most serious public health problems in China, with more than 30 million malaria cases annually before 1949. However, the disease burden has sharply declined and the epidemic areas has shrunken after the implementation of an integrated malaria control and elimination strategy.
In 2017, for the first time, China reached zero indigenous case of malaria, putting the country on track to record three consecutive years of zero transmission by 2020, according to the National Malaria Elimination Action Plan (2010–2020). China has been at the forefront of innovation in new tools and strategies for beating back the disease. China also created and rolled out a highly effective surveillance strategy. Known as “1-3-7” that includes strict timelines over the course of 7 days to stop malaria in its tracks and prevent onward transmission of the disease.
When China announced a national policy to eliminate malaria in 2010, Yunnan Province had the greatest number of counties considered at risk for the disease. Yunnan Institute for Parasitic Diseases has worked successfully with the local Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to stamp out indigenous cases of the disease across the province.
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