China is celebrating a major health achievement: the country has not recorded a single indigenous case of malaria since August 2016. This is a notable feat in a place where the disease has historically taken a huge toll. In the 1940s, there were an estimated 30 million cases of malaria and 300 000 deaths each year.
“I come from a village where malaria epidemics were common,” recalls Professor Yang Henglin, who is now a senior advisor on malaria at the Yunnan Institute of Parasitic Diseases. “Among my father’s generation, I had 2 older uncles who died probably as a result of severe malaria infection.”
Professor Yang has been involved in malaria control for 45 years. His work directing the malaria elimination strategy in Yunnan Province has helped lead to a dramatic drop in indigenous malaria cases: from 400 000 in 1953 to zero in 2016.
Full article at: WHO