National Malaria Day: This ancient plague is no less severe than COVID-19

Let’s take a look at China’s anti-malaria experience!

From ancient times to the present, humans have never been able to completely escape the threat of the infectious disease family.

In early 2020, the rapid spread of the pneumonia epidemic made the COVID-19 virus a "new killer" of human infectious diseases. But compared with it, another ancient infectious disease is even more terrifying, and its duration and extent of evil are absolutely beyond your imagination.

The parasite responsible for spreading this infectious disease developed from a single-celled organism. It appeared with the origin of humans and, after a long period of evolution, first infected reptiles, birds and mammals, then infected primates, and then passed on to humans step by step through primates.

The name of this parasite is Plasmodium, and the infectious disease it causes is malaria, which has plagued humans for tens of thousands of years.

The ancient plague, the terrible malaria

Malaria, also known as "shaking", "fever and cold disease", and "malaria", is a vector-borne infectious disease that is transmitted by mosquito bites or blood transfusions. The main symptoms are sudden chills, high fever, accompanied by headaches, fatigue, etc. At present, the types of malarial parasites that appear in my country are mainly Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum, while Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale are relatively rare.

Tropical and subtropical regions are the epicenter of malaria. According to the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Report 2019, there were approximately 228 million cases of malaria and 405,000 deaths from malaria in 2018. Most cases occurred in Africa, followed by Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

my country was once one of the countries that suffered the most from malaria. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, there were about 30 million cases of malaria in my country every year, which means that about one in seven or eight people suffered from malaria. With the development of medical and health care, my country has gradually increased its efforts to prevent and control malaria. By the beginning of the 21st century, the incidence of malaria in my country had dropped to less than one in ten thousand. Since 2017, my country has had no local primary malaria cases reported for four consecutive years, meeting the World Health Organization's national malaria elimination standards.

April 26, 2021 is the 14th "National Malaria Day" established by my country's Ministry of Health. The theme of this year's festival is "Preventing imported transmission and consolidating the results of malaria elimination."

Malaria eradication: China's successful experience

Currently, artemisinin combination therapy is the most effective method for treating malaria in the world. It is also widely used due to its low price and wide source. As we all know, artemisinin is an antimalarial drug successfully isolated from traditional Chinese medicine by Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, who also won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this achievement. The discovery of artemisinin has successfully saved millions of lives destroyed by malaria. It is the product of the close combination of traditional Chinese medicine and modern technology, and is an outstanding contribution made by the Chinese to the world's anti-malarial efforts.

In addition, my country has pioneered a "1-3-7" anti-malaria work model based on its national conditions, and established a malaria prevention and control mechanism of "adapting to local conditions, classified guidance, scientific prevention and control, joint prevention and control", which has been recognized by the World Health Organization.

“1” means that once a diagnosis is confirmed, the medical and health institution must report the patient’s condition within 1 day;

“3” means that the disease control agency must review, conduct epidemiological investigation and classify every malaria case within 3 days;

“7” means that within 7 days, the disease control and prevention agencies need to take corresponding measures for important epidemic points such as the patients’ homes and surrounding environments based on seasonal changes.

Malaria is stubborn and difficult to treat, and has become a chronic infectious disease in human society. It seems that eradication of malaria is out of reach. However, the regional success of some countries such as China is giving the world hope that malaria can be eradicated.

Just like the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, eradicating malaria requires global concerted efforts and joint resistance. No country can be left out. I hope that mankind can be free from the terrible plague as soon as possible!