WHO certifies China malaria-free after 70-yr effort

Following a 70-year effort, the World Health Organization on Tuesday certified that China is malaria free, a notable feat for a country that reported 30 million cases of the disease annually in the 1940s.

Today we congratulate the people of China on ridding the country of malaria,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, was quoted in an official statement issued by the world body as saying.

“Their success was hard-earned and came only after decades of targeted and sustained action. With this announcement, China joins the growing number of countries that are showing the world that a malaria-free future is a viable goal.”

China is the first country in the WHO Western Pacific Region to be awarded a malaria-free certification in more than three decades, according to the statement.

Other countries in the region that have achieved this status include Australia (1981), Singapore (1982) and Brunei Darussalam (1987).

Beginning in the 1950s, health authorities in China worked to locate and stop the spread of malaria by providing preventive anti-malarial medicines for people at risk of the disease as well as treatment for those who had fallen ill, the WHO statement said.

In 1967, the Chinese Government launched the “523 Project” – a nationwide research programme aimed at finding new treatments for malaria.

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