Progress in malaria control in China

PURPOSE: To summarize the main achievements of the control of malaria in the People's Republic of China. DATA SOURCES: The data are from national case reporting system (1955-1998), and bibliographic reviews of textbooks and review articles. STUDY SELECTION: Successes in control and research of malaria were identified and selected to address the stated purpose. DATA EXTRACTION: In the past 50 years, large-scale malaria control activities were conducted in the country, relying on primary health care networks and community participation. The control of malaria was implemented according to the time- and locality-oriented approaches. As a result, remarkable success has been achieved. By the end of 1998, there were 31.3 thousand malaria cases in China, with a morbidity of 0.25 per ten thousand, which dropped by 99% in comparison with that in the 1950s. RESULTS: Most of the original hyper-endemic areas became meso- or hypo-endemic and for most of the previously meso- or hypo-endemic areas, the disease became sporadic. Malaria distribution and epidemic pattern also demonstrated great changes. CONCLUSIONS: Malaria control in China has been considerably successful in the past 50 years, which coincides with the target of the World Health Organization's "Health for all by the year 2000".