OBJECTIVE
To analyze malaria situation and epidemic characteristics in 2012 in China, and provide evidence and reference for National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) performance.
METHODS
The epidemiological data of malaria cases reported through the annual malaria statistics reporting system in 2012 were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and ArcGIS 10.0.
RESULTS
Totally 2,718 malaria cases were reported from 620 counties of 31 Provinces/Municipalities/Autonomous Regions (P/M/A) in 2012, representing 39.3% reduction compared with 4,479 cases in 2011, and the annual incidence was 0.020 2/10,000. The cases were mainly reported from provinces of Yunnan (31.4%, 853/2,718), Guangxi (8.1%, 220/2,718), Jiangsu (7.3%, 198/2,718), Hunan (5.8%, 158/2,718), and Sichuan (5.7%, 155/2,718). Among the 620 counties with reported cases, 8 counties including Motuo (8.1818/10,000) in Tibet, Ruili (8.248 9/10,000), Yingjiang (3.021 4/10,000), Longchuan (1.4778/10,000), Mangshi (1.4244/10,000), Tengchong (3.1601/10,000) and Cangyuan (1.340 0/10,000) in Yunnan, and Shanglin (2.355 1/10,000) in Guangxi had an incidence between 1/10,000 and 10/10,000, 96 counties had an incidence between 0.1/10,000 and 1/10,000, and that of the others was below 0.1/10,000. The laboratory confirmed cases took 95.6% (2.599/2,718) while the other 4.4% (119/2,718) were clinically diagnosed. In detail, 39.7% (1080/2,718) were P. vivax cases, 52.2% (1.419/2,718) were P. falciparum cases, 1.6%(44/2,718) were mixed infection of P. vivax and P. falciparum, and 2.1% (56/2,718) were P. ovale and P. malariae cases. However, the proportions of lab-confirmed cases in Xinjiang, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Tibet, Ningxia, Shanxi and Qinghai were below 75.0%. A total of 182 (6.7%, 182/2,718) indigenous cases were reported from 41 counties in 5 provinces including 20 counties of Yunnan, 15 counties of Anhui, 4 counties of Hubei, 1 county of Tibet and 1 county of Guangxi, consisting of 38 (20.9%, 38/182) clinically diagnosed cases (30 cases from Yunnan and 8 from Tibet), 133 (73.1%, 133/182) P. vivax cases (92 cases from Yunnan, 30 from Anhui, 9 from Hubei, 1 from Guangxi and 1 from Tibet), and 9 (4.9%, 9/182) P. falciparum cases as well as 2 (1.1%, 2/182) mixed infections from Yunnan. The incidence of indigenous cases between 1/10,000 and 10/10,000 was found only in Motuo County of Tibet, and that of the others was below 1/10,000. Out of the 2,718 malaria cases, a proportion of 91.0% (2,474/2,718) were reported as the abroad-imported cases who distributed in 29 provinces, and the remaining 2.3% (62/2,718) were domestically-mobile cases reported from 10 provinces. Totally 145 (5.3%, 145/2,718) severe cases were reported from 15 provinces and 15 (0.6%, 15/2,718) malaria deaths were from 11 provinces.
CONCLUSION
Generally the indigenous malaria was reduced closer to the NMEP target, while malaria importation becomes an increasing challenge.