It hasn’t reported any case in four consecutive yearsThe World Health Organization (WHO) declaring that China was “malaria-free” followed a seven decade-long, multi-pronged health strategy that was able to entirely eliminate indigenous cases for four straight years, health experts said. The “malaria-free” certification from the WHO this week followed a visit in May from an independent panel to verify China’s malaria-free status, which requires four consecutive years of reporting no local cases. The number of malaria cases worldwide in 2019 was around 229 million, according to the World Malaria Report in 2020, with 409,000 lives lost to the mosquito-borne disease. Cases in India fell from approximately 20 million to 6 million, according to the 2020 report. The “malaria-free” certification was welcomed by public health experts in China and was welcome news for its health authorities, amid an intense global debate over how they handled the COVID-19 pandemic and scrutiny facing its disease control agencies.

Source: The Hindu July 03, 2021 16:30 UTC