Chinese solutions bolster African efforts in eliminating malaria

At the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, China announced 10 partnership actions that China would take with Africa to advance modernization, in which malaria treatment is a part of the partnership action for health.

Africa remains the region most affected by malaria. According to the "World malaria report 2023 ," 94 percent of global malaria cases and 95 percent of malaria deaths in 2022 occurred in Africa, with Tanzania being one of the countries hardest hit.

China is a case study worth learning from in malaria control, Yeromin Mlacha, a Tanzanian vector biologist remarked during a recent lecture in Beijing.

Thanks to the efforts of several generations of researchers, reduced its malaria cases from 30 million to zero in 70 years, earning a WHO certification of malaria-free status in 2021.

In supporting African fight against malaria, Chinese scientists have contributed solutions such as artemisinin, insecticide-treated bed nets, and the "1-3-7" strategy for malaria control that aims to have all cases of malaria reported within 1 day, case investigation within 3 days, and an in-depth investigation within 7 days. Many of these approaches have been implemented in malaria-endemic regions of Africa.

Back in 2015, the China-UK-Tanzania Pilot Project on Malaria Control signified China's inaugural endeavor in public health cooperation in Africa.

Data showed a significant reduction in malaria cases and infection rates in the pilot areas after treatment.

In 2018, artemisinin was seen as "life-saving medicine," and local villagers would give Chinese experts thumbs-up whenever they saw them, Zhou Xiaonong, chief expert for parasitic disease control at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who oversaw the project, told China News Service.

In December 2018, to further test the effectiveness of China's malaria control strategies in Africa and improve local primary healthcare systems, China and Tanzania, with support from partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, launched the second phase of a malaria prevention and control demonstration project in Tanzania.

Currently, WHO is collaborating with the Chinese CDC’s parasitic disease team to expand malaria control pilot projects in Tanzania, while extending similar efforts to other countries, including Zambia and Senegal.

He Qiwei, an assistant researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation affiliated to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, identified features of China's anti-malaria assistance to Africa, such as providing professional training and medicine, and enhancing African capacity for local medicine production based on the principle of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and common development.