Approaching Malaria Elimination in China

Malaria has been one of the most important public health problems over China and world. When dated back to the mid-20th century, malaria seriously affected the health of Chinese people with widespread epidemics. About 30 million malaria cases with an estimated 1% mortality rate were recorded in China each year in the 1940s, which caused an extremely high disease burden and a toll on the labor force (1–2). Even as recently as the 1970s, a peak in the incidence of malaria was recorded with 24.1 million cases (1–2). Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, strong political commitments, the leadership of all levels of governments, and active participation of the whole society, China has implemented a 60-year (1950–2009) control program and a 10-year (2010–2019) elimination program against malaria. As these programs have progressed, China has made great contributions towards global malaria control and elimination. One contribution is the discovery of artemisinin led by Professor Tu Youyou, the first Chinese native winner of the Nobel Prize on Physiology and Medicine, saving the lives of tens of millions malaria patients who are suffering from Plasmodium falciparum infection. The other is an achievement that China has reported no locallytransmitted malaria cases since 2017, which has become an encouraging model to significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality and, therefore, enhance the confidence that other endemic countries can achieve this as well. This paper reviews the achievements of China’s malaria control and elimination with a focus on remaining challenges.