WHO declared China Malaria free!

• Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms/ Parasite of the Plasmodium group. The disease is most commonly spread by an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
• Malaria Parasite jumped from Gorilla to humans. RH5 protein can bind with human RBCs.
• Argentina and Algeria both certified malaria free by WHO. And now China.

Initiatives for Malaria

• Odisha Government had launched a malaria control programme – "Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (DAMaN)" initiative.
• Ingenious technique to eradicate mosquito.
  1. Through 2 population control methods viz. Radiation and Bacteria (named Wolbachia).
  2. Through radiation the mosquito is sterilized and through bacteria the eggs are dead.
  3. The test is done on AedesAlbopictus mosquito which is the vector for Zika and Dengue.
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
  1. It is a 21st C partnership organization to end AIDS, TB and Malaria. It was founded in 2002 to pool World resources as a partnership between Govts, Civil society, Private sector etc.
  2. India has recently announced a contribution of $22 million to the GFTAM.
• SDG 3.3 set a target of ending epidemics of AIDS, TB & Malaria by 2030 in Key populations
• Combination therapy using Malaria drug (Chloroquin + Isoniazid) quickly clears TB.India has announced a contribution of $22 million to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFTAM) for the 6th replenishment cycle (2020-22).
• Malawi recently launched the world’s first malaria vaccine RTS,S (Mosquirix)
  1. To provide partial protection against malaria in young children.
  2. Financing is mobilized through 3 bodies: GAVI, Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and UNAID.
  3. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium Falciparum parasite that are transmitted to people through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable.
  4. The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 lays out the vision, mission and principles to achieve the target of malaria elimination by 2030.

WHO declared China malaria-free

• The World Health Organization (WHO) declaring that China was “malaria-free” followed a seven decade-long, multi-pronged health strategy that was able to entirely eliminate indigenous cases for four straight years, health experts said.
• The “malaria-free” certification from the WHO this week followed a visit in May from an independent panel to verify China’s malaria-free status, which requires four consecutive years of reporting no local cases.
• The number of malaria cases worldwide in 2019 was around 229 million, according to the World Malaria Report in 2020, with 409,000 lives lost to the mosquito-borne disease.
• The 2020 report said the majority of cases were reported in Africa, while India and Southeast Asia recorded a significant drop.
• Cases in India fell from approximately 20 million to 6 million, according to the 2020 report.
• The WHO said China is the first country in the Western Pacific region to be declared malaria-free in more than 30 years, following Australia in 1981, Singapore in 1982 and Brunei in 1987.

What was China’s strategy?

• The effort began in the early 1950s, a time when China was reporting millions of cases annually, starting with a multi-pronged approach of providing anti-malarial medicines while targeting mosquito breeding grounds and using insecticide spraying.
• A national effort called ‘the 523 Project’ was launched in 1967 involving more than 500 scientists from 60 institutes, the WHO noted, leading to the discovery of artemisinin in the 1970s, which is “the core compound of artemisinin-based combination therapies, the most effective antimalarial drugs available today”.
• In the 1980s, China began using insecticide-treated nets widely, distributing 2.4 million nets by 1988. Cases began to drop, down to 117,000 in 1990. The number would fall to 5,000 annually by the end of the following decade.
• With assistance from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria starting in 2003, China “stepped up training, staffing, laboratory equipment, medicines and mosquito control, an effort that led to a further reduction in cases,” the WHO said.
• ‘1-3-7 strategy’: It credited China’s public health system offering free of charge diagnosis and treatment of malaria in bringing down cases to zero, as well as a “1-3-7 strategy” referring to a one-day deadline to report a malaria diagnosis, confirming a case and determining the spread by the third day, and measures taken to stop the spread by the seventh day, along with continued surveillance in high-risk areas.
• At the same time, concern over imported cases remains, particularly from Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, which share a border with the southwestern Yunnan province.

For detailed post on all the Vector borne diseases: click here